Is the World Cup being taken over by VAR?

Daniel Storey

Send your mails to theeditor@football365.com…

 

Ronaldo is good enough that we can avoid revisionism
The world is high on Cristiano atm. And I can see why. He ostensibly had a classic world cup performance. I’d argue the first two goals were anything but special but that seems especially hair splitting.

What troubles me is the tendency (Shane’o and the like) to reimagine Ronaldo as this all conquering international / finals force. He didn’t carry Portugal to the Euros final – Nani was arguably their best player throughout. He’s been totally peripheral in Madrid’s Champions League wins – apart from smacking home the odd pen.

Yet many would tell you that he is the ultimate big game player – remember those Champions League final performances? There appears to be a collective desire to will into existence a different Ronaldo, one that hasn’t been outshone in every one of the last five finals he played in.

He’s a machine – but he hasn’t had a MOTM performance in any of the last five or six finals he’s played in. He’s a lot of things – wonderful, unique things – but by assigning qualities to him that aren’t true you’re doing him a disservice.
C, Essex

 

Saturday was VAR day
It was VAR day at the World Cup, and I thought it did OK. It caught one clear penalty (for Peru) and one “you’ve seen them given” (for France), without causing undue interruption in the match. On the other hand, Argentina probably should have had a penalty when Pavon went down, which shows we’re still relying on human judgment. But overall I’d say a small net plus.

There are troublesome side effects, however, because FIFA has instructed the assistant referees to keep the flag down on a close offside, because VAR will sort it out. Sounds all right, but there were two incidents yesterday that call the procedure into question.

The first came early in the second half of Peru-Denmark, where a non-flag led to an exciting patch of play, where Peru probably should have scored but didn’t. The replay showed an unambiguous offside, which I’m guessing the ref didn’t call because of FIFA’s instruction. Had Peru scored, the goal would certainly have been disallowed by VAR. But if the flags are staying down, we can get a fair amount of useless action—perhaps exciting, but ultimately frustrating because it won’t matter.

The second incident came midway through the first half of Croatia-Nigeria, when a non-flag allowed Nigeria to win a corner kick. The replay showed a clear offside, but it wasn’t reviewed because a goal or penalty wasn’t involved. So Nigeria got a free corner kick. Now refs get offside calls wrong all the time, but if they’re keeping the flags down, they’ll get more calls wrong, and this sort of thing will happen more often.

VAR will never be perfect. I sort of think it’s doable, but even so, it could take some time to get the balance right.
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA (I love the name Finnbogason)

 

VAR is crap!
Chris, Croydon

 

Jealous of Iceland
God, I really wish I was Icelandic. It must be so much bloody fun being Icelandic during these tournaments.
Rob (I just need to be cooler, prettier, leaner and a bit blonder and I’d be there), Leicester

 

France: You need a good manager too
So, it seems that having a squad jam-packed with young attacking superstars doesn’t necessarily guarantee you’ll win a game or, in the case of France v Oz, even play to a decent level?

Could it be that there’s a little bit more to this management malarkey than throwing 11 world class players on the pitch and crossing your fingers?

Note to self. Next time somebody claims Guardiola ain’t all that…
Mark (Is Didier the national manager equivalent of Jose?) MCFC

 

What might have been
Think you’re enjoying the World Cup? Remember we were favourites to host it, and imagine what that would have been like…
Rustin Cohle

 

Peru vs Denmark making you hate football
Sometimes I hate football, even when I love it so. One of the attractions, I think, of watching 22 men chasing an inflated air sack about a field is that anything can happen and either side can win. Even with disparity of wealth and talent, given the low scoring nature of the game, it doesn’t take much for a game to go the way it really shouldn’t. Which is the positive way of saying the game is unfair.

The best side doesn’t always win and it’s what brings tension and joy in a way that, tennis for instance, often doesn’t. And then you watch Peru Denmark. And you see one side play with technique and flair and verve and attacking intent, and the other side really doesn’t. And then the side that doesn’t wins. I know. If you don’t take your chances you don’t deserve to win. I know that, respect it even. But still. I hate football. Even when I love it so.
Robert

 

Struggling with the commentary
I’ve managed to catch every game barring the Morocco v Iran game so far this summer. Had mixed feelings about this opening weekend but some of that can fairly be put down to early tournament nerves. The actual football isn’t why I’m here however.

It’s this commentary. I’ve written in here a few times recently regarding the standard during England’s last few friendlies. Now I really haven’t got a problem with the main anchor on most commentary teams. I am however, losing faith in nearly every co-commentator.

The thing I’d love to know is why there is this strict structure of always having one ex-player/manager as part of every one of these teams??? Apart from one or two throughout the mainstream industry they all produce such dross.

Let’s face it, football is a game where most of us make up our own opinions, with our own eyes, real time. We really don’t need someone telling us exactly what we’ve just watched in a slow motion replay, 10-15 seconds after an event (VAR anyone??).

My point I guess, is that experience on the pitch, really counts for nothing when it comes to describing the action to a viewing audience. I haven’t got a problem with ex-players doing the job as such, it’s more that surely there are lots of people out there that have practiced/trained their whole lives to be commentators, who alongside someone similar could provide a rich, ongoing debate about the unfolding action with genuine passion, and actually make the match more of a spectacle???

There’s a reason that we all have those historic commentary sound bites stored in our memories, the ones that we used to quote as we tried to replicate a goal in the playground as kids. It’s because for that second or two, it sounded like that moment meant as much to that commentator as it did to the player performing that memorable action, whatever it was.

I know this all sounds like a stupid rant, but I’m passionate about football and I really feel like this is the one part of the game which for the most part hasn’t moved on with the times.
Chris Hardy

 

An excellent question
I was watching the Peru Denmark game today and the commentators talked about one of the Peru players having a meltdown before the tournament because he thought he hadn’t made the squad for the world cup, this was all because his sticker wasn’t included in the Panini world cup sticker collection.

This got me thinking, how many players have been included by Panini over the years that didn’t actually make the final squads and equally how many players were left out of the sticker who did made the cut. Who are they, who did they play for?

Well as I’m far too lazy and busy watching the footie, I’d thought I’d ask if you wonderful people fancy doing an article?
Simon

 

Liverpool dislike Spurs because they’re a danger
While we’re on the subject of rivalry between Liverpool and Spurs; the ‘interweb’ didn’t create it for me.

You can diminish the achievements of ‘big money’ clubs because everything is so unfair and you didn’t stand a chance anyway. But Spurs? They developed a team in a way Liverpool should have years ago.

Being outclassed by a bigger club hurts. Being outclassed by an equal is worse.
Aidan, Lfc (fortunately we’re back in the game…btw loving the World Cup so far)