We're halfway thru the Women's World Cup, as the field of 24 has been cut to 16 and the knockout round is set to begin. The group stage brought few surprises and certainly didn't change my opinion on who the team to beat is. So, instead of talking about the round of 16, I've gotta address the elephant in the room.
VAR is a great idea in theory. And it was 100 percent the right decision to use it at this World Cup. But VAR has definitely reared its ugly head in the form of some questionable penalty calls that decided games.
In particular, I'm talking about the VAR enforcement of new rules regarding penalty kicks. On a penalty kick, the goalkeeper is required to have at least one foot on the line when the kick taker makes contact with the ball. There have been at least three instances in this Women's World Cup where the keeper made a save, only to have VAR overturn it because she was off her line, resulting in a rekick and a yellow card for the keeper. And the rekick ended up being successful.
How important was that? Well, in the Scotland-Argentina game, Scotland was leading 3-2 when Argentina, after missing a penalty kick in stoppage time, was given a retake and converted it. Had Scotland won that game, they would've advanced to the round of 16. Instead, they were the only European team to go home.
One of the articles I was reading after that game hit the nail right on the head. It's like when the second baseman holds the tag on the baserunner who's trying to steal and the other team thought he came off the base for a nanosecond so they challenged the call. After zooming in and looking at it in slow-mo, they determine that he did indeed come off the base and call the runner out.
That's not what instant replay is for. Is it technically the correct call by the rules of the game? Yes. But if you need to go to the slow-mo, zoomed in replay, that's not a "clear and obvious error." And the purpose of replay is to correct "clear and obvious errors."
Same thing in soccer. VAR is supposed to be used at normal speed. Not slow-mo. Not zoomed in. Not freeze-framed. We've seen plenty of times in NFL replay challenges over the years that you can see pretty much anything you want when you zoom in and freeze frame the video. Anyway, the point is, if you need to go to VAR to determine that the goalie left her line a split second too early, that's not a "clear and obvious error." And it certainly shouldn't result in a yellow card, which seems doubly harsh. Even if it is technically the letter of the law.
There have been plenty of penalties controversially awarded by VAR, too. France-Norway is the best example of that. A 50-50 ball that wasn't a shot somehow resulted in France being awarded a penalty kick by VAR. And I'm still convinced that call wouldn't have been made if it was any team other than France.
Most of these calls have been made because, after the VAR check, they determined that there was a handball or contact in the box, resulting in the penalty and a yellow card. And some of those handballs have been dubious calls at best. If the ball hits the hand and it's in a natural position, that's supposed to be nothing. Likewise, if they're both making a play on the ball and there's contact, that's supposed to be nothing as long as it isn't excessive (when the South African girl left her foot up and kicked the Spanish player in the chest, THAT was excessive and the red card was warranted).
Defenders are in a no-win situation here. Because of VAR, they feel like they essentially aren't allowed to play defense anywhere in the box. And I've gotta say, I'm siding with the defenders on this one. Because the way they've been taught to play their whole lives is suddenly a yellow card and penalty kick. So how exactly are they supposed to defend then?
They've also instructed the two assistant referees not to raise their offside flags right away so that the play can continue. The theory behind that makes sense. If a goal is scored, they can catch the offside on VAR. I have no problem with that directive. Except we've seen some goals taken away for offside when it wasn't "clear and obvious" that the player was behind the last defender. And sometimes it looks like it's definitely offside, but they let the goal stand.
Don't get me wrong. When used correctly, VAR is a good thing and I'm glad they're using it at the Women's World Cup. And there's always going to be controversy surrounding those three letters. But the conversation shouldn't be about the calls VAR has gotten "wrong" or, at the very least, hasn't clarified one way or the other. Again, I'm a big fan of VAR and it absolutely should be used in this tournament. Now they just need to start using it right.
No comments:
Post a Comment