But neither young or bale batted out a certain goal with their hands in a world cup game have they?

No they did not but given the opportunity id say the vast majority would have done the same....Henry is by no means a scumbag of a player but when he cheated to eliminate ireland in the world cup qualifer's , you cant really complain because if the opportunity arose for any striker in the same position they would have cheated as well....

Unless it was robbie fowler he never cheats....

So cheating is an accepted part of the game because Liverpool have one? Is that the line you're pushing?

Thank you mrtz.
I wasn't sure whether I'd asked you before, but now I know.

Rafa looks slightly different on that picture - I didn't know he had freckles.

As someone else already mentioned...any striker would do that to get a free header...if he's caught he's penalized, if not he get's a shot in and potential goal.

I was referring to:

1) Suarez shaking hands with the ref's after the game(something I've never see him do until now),
2) He concern for Terry even though Suarez would not have seen a yellow or red card for his collision with Terry....in most instances, the offender tries to show sympathy to con the ref into not giving a card....not the case this time....Suarez appeared to genuinely take an interest in Terry's injury.
3) What appeared to be his willingness to fall to ground and get up and on with the match vs. looking for a free kick

classic. so you ignore the biggest part of the game which was his blatant bit of cheating to equalise and praise him for shaking the hand of the match officials that allowed him to get away with this piece of cheating.

he then seemingly deserves credit for showing concern over a bloke who screamed in agony after nearly snapping his leg and, finally, for getting off the floor without moaning?

lets not pretend that Suarez is anything other than a rat faced little weasel with the morals of a street walker desperate for her next crack fix.

You make it sound like he's the only striker out there that would have blatantly cheated to equalize as you put it...I think it's a mute point b/c any striker would do whatever they could to score and as I mentioned, if the ref caught it then the player would be penalized...if not, the goal stands...

By no means am I saying Suarez is a model sportsman...my initial comment was geared towards signs of sporstman like conduct from him that was never there before...

You may want to watch the replay of Terry's injury again...to me it was Terry's own doing as a result of Suarez trying to weave in and out around him.

The guy arguably is one of the best players in the league...scoring goals out of nothing...he's not liked for his diving antics which I admit he has done, but make no mistake about it, his skill with the ball is incomparable to most in the premiership.

I'd back Owen on this one.

Yes, Suarez is still one of the shadier characters on the pitch. The corner was part of it. There's always pushing, pulling, etc. when it's a packed box. There have been a lot more blatant pushes and using opponents as leverage to get a header in that were not called.

To Owen's point, though, this is exactly the type of game set up for Suarez to be diving all over the place in a desperate attempt to win a penalty. I was prepared for it - but I was surprised not to see it. I saw him fall over easily one or two times, but nothing as blatant as I've seen from him before when he plays the stronger defenses.

Perhaps the coaches have finally had a word with him and he's actually trying to fix this part of his game. He won't win any sportsman of the year awards, but he's taking steps in the right direction. Even if they're small, it's better than nothing.

the only issue i have is with Owen declaring Suarez as 'being more sportsman-like'.

it is a laughable suggestion in a game that you, yourself, admit to seeing him going over easily one or two times - as well as shoving a player out of the way for a free header. whether other players do it is neither here nor there since we are talking about sportsmanship.

i accept that we're using such a gutter level approach to the game as a standard for him but behaving like every other player isn't being a 'sportsman' and pushing an opponent out of the way isn't sportsmanship either - otherwise Stoke would be the most sporting team in the world.

it isn't just the diving with Suarez anyhow, he also has an uncanny knack for scummy challenges on opponents - that's aside from the other traits he has.

Yeah, I guess a more proper assessment would be, "he's not diving as much."

I've noticed the improvement because my main frustration with him is that he's on the ground so much that we lose the one striker we have in the flow of the game. This wasn't the case vs. Chelsea. He usually serves more of a detriment than an asset when the going gets tough.

Perhaps sportsman like was too strong a word to describe him...Mrtz. got the just of what I was getting at, and I also think perhaps the manager, teammates and Suarez himself is starting to realize what he is doing to the game with his diving antics.

yeah perhaps i came over a little too strongly and i do get what you mean. i think the words sportsmanship and suarez in the same sentence nearly made me have a fit.

No not at all mate im just saying he would do what the vast majority of strikers would do in any goalscoring opportunity....I dont like cheating as a means to win but its part and parcel of the game now we just have to accept it....

Off topic wrong decisions make the game all that more exciting for me , all this talk of new tecnhnology really puts me off i think if anymore rules are introduced it will slowly kill the game...