Pepe, we don't want your kind around here.

Day 7 WorldCup2018

It's been a wonderful World Cup so far, with exciting, fast moving matches being the norm. The defensive teams have been tough and fair, and the dirty fouls and play acting have been at a minimum.

That is, until today when Portugal's Pepe and Iran's goalkeeper, Alireza Beiranvan, spoiled all the positiveness and gave all the non-football fans who laugh at football for the ridiculous fake injuries lots of ammunition. So thank you, Pepe and Alireza Beiranvan for being such ridiculous idiots.

Pepe flopped to the ground after he was tapped on the shoulder by a Moroccan player. Tapped, really. Not pushed, not punched. Tapped. There he was looking like he had been violently assaulted while, quite rightly, the world laughed at him. I can't say anymore how I don't understand how these players can not be embarrassed when they do this. So I will quote what some of his fellow footballers had to say.

Gary Lineker: "See Pepe is still a d***."

Martin Keown: ""It's hard to take him seriously. Men were men when I played. If I'd have done that against Alan Shearer he'd have laughed and walked over the top of me."

Rio Ferdinand: "He must be embarrassed when he sees himself on TV behaving like that. He must be embarrassed for his kids to see that."

John Arne Riise: "OMG Pepe. Pathetic. Grow up man."

Then in the late match, Beiranvan and Spanish striker Diego Costa's toes touched and Beiranvan was down on the floor like a meteorite had fallen from space on his foot. Thank goodness the referee had the good sense to give him a good talking to. Later he was at it again. After a pretty good save a Spanish player looking to capitalize on the rebound collided with him and there he was rolling around with one eye on the referee to make sure he got the foul instead of the corner for Spain that it should have been.

That was not the biggest story of the Spain-Iran match though. First Spain finally broke through Iran's incredibly defensive display with a very lucky Costa goal. Then in one of those moments of incredible emotional swings, Iran scored but had the goal disallowed by a very attentive assistant referee and VAR. It was a mix of embarrassing and sad watching the whole Iranian bench erupt in celebration when the "goal" was scored. As the Iranian "scorer" said his prayers on the ground you wondered who was going to have the heart to tell him that the refereee was standing at the spot where he took the shot with his hand up, signifying that he was about to award a free kick to Spain.

Morocco are the first team eliminated after they lost to Portugal. It seems so soon, too soon. We haven't even had a week. And Saudi Arabia and Egypt are also gone after Uruguay's 1-0 win over the Saudis. It all seems so real, like the tournament has now become serious when teams are knocked out and players are pretending to be knocked out.

Fifa, be brave, and discipline these players. They spoil the whole month for all of us.