I see it more often in Europe, besides that, European matches tend to be boring.;)
When it comes to Kaka, an elbow is an elbow, and his attitude in the whole 2nd half was just sad. I was happy they threw him out, even though the elbow thing was exaggerated.
When it comes to some bad acting, i'll have to point out one of Your own, Ronaldo. Sure, there are some bad actors in every team, Rivaldo and his famous knee-head nerve connection, but i thionk Europe has more of those. Beside the bad acting, Europe has one of the dirtiest football playing ever, i just can't watch Italy, or France for that matter. England finally decided to give up on fouling, but they also gave up on football, judging by their matches in this Cup.;P
So did I [and my mom]... and then we saw Cameroon. ;D
Oh, and Ghana actually got the 2nd place in the African Cup Of Nations 2010, which i have sadly missed, due to the suckage of my cable op. ;/

An elbow is an elbow ?
C'mon, the guy was running in Kaka's general direction and when he felt contact he made an ass of himself and dived into the pool, Kaka wasn't even looking at him ;)
Too bad the ref was a reall bad one and bought the whole shabang, otherwise it would have been the C d'I guy who would have seen a yellow card . I'm not sure what you mean about Kaka's attitude, i didn't watched the whole match, but i do know no player should get a card, red or yellow, for what went down with Kaka.
Yes, there are players who try to fool the ref in every team, national or clubs, but i don't think it happens more with European teams or clubs than in the rest of the world. That impression probably comes from the fact that most football we end up watching is European football.
I'm not a big fan of Ronaldo, same way i'm not a big fan of any player who reaches 'sacred cow' status in the Selecção, 'cause that's usually when they start to do more harm than good to the team, but i don't think of him as someone who fakes alot. He complains alot, and that's terrible to watch, at least i hate it when he does it, and it's something that has the potencial to get the team in trouble.

Well, he slammed his chin into Kaka's shoulder, the rest was pure acting. But i've seen the whole match, and the ref was just too nice for both teams, and it escalated. In the second half Kaka was acting like a douche all the time.
It could be that Europeans like to play more aggressively, but with the grace of an elephant.
Remember that Argentina v Nigeria match? Now that's how You take over the ball. :D
Perhaps it's because i see those damn Italians in every Cup, but i bet we could fetch some stats and compare them.;)
I totally agree, when a player starts to be a cult person, and gets cash from commercials, he plays like s..t. ;)
Perhaps it's just my [and my friends] selective memory, but when Ronaldo gets the ball, and reaches the other teams 20m goal radius he's bound to trip over on an invisible leg, and then look like a kid who's just got robbed of his candy [kinda like that Nicholas Cage facial thing, but less grotesque]. And of course, with all the bad mouth at the ref.
Have You seen how Ghana reacted to the ref today? No yelling, no shouting, no gestures. And at one occasion, after one of the Germans fouled one of the opponents, another Ghana player tapped him on the shoulder, and asked him to play nice and help the guy get up. The whole thing looked priceless, the German guy was lost.;)

Many times he does get lost doing his thing, then he fumbles on his own and usually ends up 'ass in the grass' waving his arms at the ref, yes, you're not seeing things, i see that too ;)
But i don't see that so much as faking, more like him trying to throw his weight around after the fact. I'm not saying he doesn't fake at all, he does, just more or less the same than everybody else.
I think Ronaldo's value as a club player is undeniable, but when it comes to the national team that's a whole different story. That goal he scored against DPR ? He hadn't scored one in 14 months and if i'm not mistaken that other one was a penalty, so he really hasn't been 'the best' or most productive player on the team in a long time, not by a long shot.
But, he's Ronaldo, so he ends up getting praise when he deserves it and sometimes when he doesn't, like FIFA handing him the 'best player of the match' award. He did gave the award to Tiago, which does shows some maturity and that maybe in time he'll end up turning out to be a good captain for the team. Really, nice gesture, and one that caught me totally off guard.
FIFA must have been watching some other Portugal - DPR match btw, because, Coentrão, Tiago, Meireles, anyone of them played alot better than Ronaldo.
I did noticed that. They carried themselves nicely even later on when the news from the other game weren't so great (when Serbia scored). Very nice, even because sometimes it doesn't take much for African teams to loose their focus and start messing about in terms of their game or their disciplin or both. That's another reason i was glad Ghana made it through, cool team.
Edit: What the hell ? SInce when have the boards trouble dealing with ^'s, ~'s and ç's ?

Oh boy. Last World cup's champion and second place are out of the tourney. I guess four years makes a lot of difference.
Congrats to the slovaks and good game to the italians.

Osnap I wanted to watch the match with Ghana, but missed it :(

Last 10 mins were crazy. The Italians only woke up in the last 10 mins.

Well, at least one SLO is going on to the next stage. ENVYYY

Interesting match. I thought it would be merely an Italian exhibition.
(and after those pathetic TV advertisements our defeat would look even more hilarious)

This World Cup is certainly interesting. This time the 'big' teams have gone in expecting early easy wins and have been punished for it. Maybe it's the standard of World football increasing but I think it's more the arrogance of the overpaid superstars thats getting shown up.

This is not the year for italian exhibition. The last 10 minutes were crazy, yes, in particular for italian defence. Defeat is right, we had no chance in this World cup.

France out, Italy out, England just barely getting through.
It's not been great for the so-called big European teams!
Spain may also have a problem tomorrow, Chile will be looking to draw to win the group, and Switzerland should be able to beat Honduras.
Looking forward to tonights games, should be good. Think Denmark vs. Japan will be the best game to watch though, they both need the win.

After Denmark v Cameroon i wish i could see both teams, but i'll have to go with Cameroon tonight, just because of the class they've shown back in the DvC match.;)
About that dirty European football, have You seen that Italy match today? With that "let's kick their goalkeeper in the face" thing? If i were that goalkeeper i'd punch back too i guess.;)
And of course, that nasty cut skin on the knee of one of the Slovaks. And he continued to play [for 5 minutes, till the end of the half], Slavs are tough, hehe. ;D

Nah, had all sorts of things going wrong at my end today, didn't manage to watch it :(