VAR Again !!

[SwalePie]

Jesus is ****, btw. Can't believe they took Willian off and left him on.

The manager probably just felt generous as he had a good Samara tan...

[the_anticlough]

I'd say it's been pretty sh!t this first time but there's still a lot of room for improvement

We can all give it a grade, the main question is has it been a net good or a net bad - leading to persevere or pull the plug?

List all the instances VAR has righted a wrong (a lot). Offset that with the times it's caused a good decision to be overriden by an error (a few). We know it's missed chances to right a wrong (like Kompany last night) and they'll have to be much better than that. My main worry was delaying the game with the time it would take. I've been pleasantly surprised. Watching the NBA, I'll shout at the screen over the delays and they've been at it for years. With a few exceptions VAR has been quick enough.

Think about Maradona in 1986, Thierry Henry's handball against the Irish, even back to Leeds v Bayern Munich in the euro cup final. It's use would have changed footy history. The impact is huge.

I like it that far more penalties are given. It's going to lead to far less holding at set pieces and that's got to be good for the game. It's almost impossible for refs to police that and it would get even worse without it. One worry is the on-pitch refs changing. They can't start leaving penalty decisions to VAR. They've got to think that being overturned for not giving a penalty is as bad as a given penalty being corrected - just do the job as normal and not be influenced by VAR.

Brave decision by FIFA to bring it in for the biggest show in the world and I think they've been vindicated. There's been at least 1 disaster day for VAR, but you can be confident that those officials won't be let anywhere near today's games, semis and finals, but I'm ready to proved completely wrong...

[drillerpie]

Over we're I am, they showed a zoomed-in, freeze frame from a certain angle which proved without doubt that it was a penalty.
When we see the VAR studio working, I didn't spot that particular shot on their screens. For this one, it might be a case that they're not skillful or well-practiced enough to use the tech to the fullest effect.

On Italian TV they had replays of the VAR refs watching the replays (welcome to football in 2018) and it looked like they were checking the position of the ball. The refereeing expert was saying that there were two 'contacts' between Kompany and the striker and only the second one was a foul, and when that happened the ball was out of play so can't be a pen.

I thought Kompany's first contact with his studs on the Brazilian's ankle was also a foul, the second contact when his momentum causes him to clean the striker out so definitely was. I also thought the ball was still in for the second contact.

Bobo Vieri said it was a penalty and got into a heated argument with another pundit about it.

[Frigiliana Pie 1]

One of the main reservations about VAR was that it was going to take too long to make decisions and the pattern and momentum of the match would become broken up. During the World Cup, this has generally not been the case and the problem has seemed to be overcome.

But will this situation continue in future if VAR is applied to domestic games? Because this is the World Cup, resources are almost unlimited and we have had the luxury of four referees working on every VAR review. Presumably the three assistants are looking simultaneously at different camera angles and reporting to the one in charge who makes a decision and communicates with the match referee. Would we have four referees available for each and every match if, say, VAR was introduced to the Premier League? I think there was only one VAR referee on each game when the pilot scheme was applied in the FACup last season and he had to look at all the relevant camera angles himself before making a decision and communicating with the match referee.

My conclusion is that the “time lag problem” with VAR has only been overcome by quadrupling the manpower involved and whether this can be sustained if VAR is introduced more widely seems rather doubtful.

[the_anticlough]

Well, Bobo Vieri was right. Don't know how this one can be debated - the proofs all there. The onfield ref got it wrong and then the VAR refs couldn't use the tech well enough to show him the foul - studs straight onto the shin after Jesus had played the ball, with the ball still a yard inside the goal line.