FIFA Women's World Cup 2019 - France

Controversial VAR decision in Australia v Brazil

https://streamable.com/a7dzb

On the one hand, it was an Obvious offside, however it was an own goal and the Australian attacker wasn't even near her. so you'd say, although offside. No hindering or involvement in play so goal.

On the other hand, the defender wouldn't have to do that without the player being there, then she'd just let it go to the keeper. so no goal
 
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Controversial VAR decision in Australia v Brazil

https://streamable.com/a7dzb

On the one hand, it was an Obvious offside, however it was an own goal and the Australian attacker wasn't even near her. so you'd say, although offside. No hindering or involvement in play so goal.

On the other hand, the defender wouldn't have to do that without the player being there, then she'd just let it go to the keeper. so no goal
On the other hand, come on Aussie, come on, come on.
 
Why does fox have alexi lalas as a Women's World Cup pundit

Because they think its the right ratio to not piss the genders off. They view him as a man's man that can also relate to woke white females.

ETA: Jokes aside...former USWNT players should be the ones as the men's team pundits. They actually have accomplished a lot, while the men's team players get rewarded for failure after failure.
 

I don't like VAR, because it leads to picayune calls like this letting France retake a penalty because the goalkeeper came off her line milliseconds before the ball was struck.

But even moreso, if we are going to call keeper violations this minimal, then we have to make it illegal for penalty takers to stutter step like the taker did here. Or change the rules so that any stutter step negates the keeper line violation.

The key sequence starts around 1:10
 

I don't like VAR, because it leads to picayune calls like this letting France retake a penalty because the goalkeeper came off her line milliseconds before the ball was struck.

But even moreso, if we are going to call keeper violations this minimal, then we have to make it illegal for penalty takers to stutter step like the taker did here. Or change the rules so that any stutter step negates the keeper line violation.

The key sequence starts around 1:10
And as a fan of VAR (though it has a long long way to go), this was atrocious.

I never knew that something like this could be reviewed, and I would imagine that in close to all PKs taken, the keepers are off the line slightly early. This wasn’t egregious at all, so I don’t see why this was allowed to be retaken.

I also didn’t know that coming off the line early was a yellow card offense.
 

I don't like VAR, because it leads to picayune calls like this letting France retake a penalty because the goalkeeper came off her line milliseconds before the ball was struck.

But even moreso, if we are going to call keeper violations this minimal, then we have to make it illegal for penalty takers to stutter step like the taker did here. Or change the rules so that any stutter step negates the keeper line violation.

The key sequence starts around 1:10
Would be fair to also flag the French players for encroachment early, and more, than the keeper. Should then negate the penalty. Because if the keeper sees other players rushing the box while focusing on the kicker, it’s distracting and a violation.
 
Once again, the problem with VAR isn't VAR, it's that we're learning we don't actually like the Laws as written if they're rigorously enforced. Which is fine! They can be changed.
The previous check on nitpicky shit was that the ref would just choose not to call it. I think we can probably agree that Whim Of The Ref is not the ideal solution, either.
 
Once again, the problem with VAR isn't VAR, it's that we're learning we don't actually like the Laws as written if they're rigorously enforced. Which is fine! They can be changed.
The previous check on nitpicky shit was that the ref would just choose not to call it. I think we can probably agree that Whim Of The Ref is not the ideal solution, either.

No. It many instances it was not a choice. It was impossible to see. We've learned from experience with every sport that video review let's officials see thing they never saw before and that you cannot fix it by rewriting the rules. The NFL has tried repeatedly to fix the rule of what constitutes a catch and has been unable to succeed. Baseball has an issue with players losing contact with a base for milliseconds while they slide in. And you can't write a rule that says a catch is a catch unless it is juggled, but only for an amount in excess of 467 milliseconds, or that a runner is safe unless he loses contact, but not if the loss of contact is nitpicky shit, and a keeper has to stay on the line or it's a do over, but not if she leaves 3 or fewer video frames before the ball is struck.

Believing that humans can create perfect systems is a delusion, including the idea that it is possible to create perfect rules that if applied exactly as written always would be just. It also tends to lead to ridiculous complexity at best, and (outside sports) tyranny at the worst, because in order to account for every possible permutation there must be too many rules and exceptions for people to understand and follow. Embracing imperfection is embracing humanity. These are games, not death penalty cases. We can live with ref mistakes. Hell, we live with VAR mistakes.
 
Whim Of The Ref is not the ideal solution, either.
Also, Whim of the Ref = clear and obvious error standard. The idea that VAR improves consistency or helps players, coaches and fans understand what is a fumble, or a catch, or offside, or a handball is contrary to all evidence, including hundreds of thousands of complaints about video review decisions.
 
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Also, Whim of the Ref = clear and obvious error standard. The idea that VAR improves consistency or helps players, coaches and fans understand what is a fumble, or a catch, or offside, or a handball is contrary to all evidence, including hundreds of thousands of complaints about video review decisions.
I don't think volume of complaints is necessarily the way to determine whether consistency or understanding of the rules has improved. Also don't know that it's necessarily more or less than it was under WoTR either.

Also the idea that humans can create perfect systems may be delusional, but the idea that humans can improve imperfect systems is far more plausible.
 
a handball is
I do think that VAR will eventually force a re-writing of the handball rule, specifically in regard to what kind of handball in the box constitutes a penalty.

There have been far too many instances recently of ball-to-hand penalties when no reasonable person could conclude the defender exercised any kind of agency in the contact... Mané's opportunistic kick of the ball into Sissoko's hand in the UCL final, for example. Everybody hates it. We, the fans, understand that the intent (ha) of the handball rule is to prevent defenders from either deliberately using their hands to play the ball or at the very least making contact which results in an advantage for the defender. There's going to have to be some kind of onerous parsing of the difference between ball-to-hand (or "passive handball") vs. hand-to-ball (or "active handball") fouls in the box in order to reduce the number of incredibly dissatisfying penalties given.

As far as the issue of keepers coming off of their line early, we may decide that it's better for the game if we allow the keeper to move off of their line as long as they wait until... I dunno, after the attacker's first step or something?
 
I do think that VAR will eventually force a re-writing of the handball rule, specifically in regard to what kind of handball in the box constitutes a penalty.

There have been far too many instances recently of ball-to-hand penalties when no reasonable person could conclude the defender exercised any kind of agency in the contact... Mané's opportunistic kick of the ball into Sissoko's hand in the UCL final, for example. Everybody hates it. We, the fans, understand that the intent (ha) of the handball rule is to prevent defenders from either deliberately using their hands to play the ball or at the very least making contact which results in an advantage for the defender. There's going to have to be some kind of onerous parsing of the difference between ball-to-hand (or "passive handball") vs. hand-to-ball (or "active handball") fouls in the box in order to reduce the number of incredibly dissatisfying penalties given.

As far as the issue of keepers coming off of their line early, we may decide that it's better for the game if we allow the keeper to move off of their line as long as they wait until... I dunno, after the attacker's first step or something?
Nah, sorry, the intent of the hand ball rule is to limit a player having an unfair “bigness” to the body. Ball to hand is a red herrings. The dude had his arm outstretched and was bigger than he’d normally be. He stopped the ball and it was a PK. It may be a bad example you chose to argue, but he was 1000% guilty of the foul and PK with or without VAR.
 
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