It took long enough, but VAR has finally arrived in Argentina. Their original idea was to have it since the first semester of 2019, but it ended up being delayed by things like costs discussions and politics, and of course a worldwide pandemic didn't exactly help them on that front.
Brasil uses VAR since 2018, and other local leagues already have it working, such as Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador, Chile and Colombia. But eventually, on March 31st, 2022, the eighth round of the league, VAR finally made its debut in Argentinian professional football.
And 11 days into the VAR era, this happens: https://twitter.com/juans_perez/status/1513896713836191752?t=MJGarymjoDbLMPIkrHdDiQ&s=19
If you don't want to click on the link above, here's what happens: Hurac|in is facing Barracas Central at their stadium, "El Palacio" Tom|is Adolfo Duc||. 87 minutes into the game, score is 1-1, Barracas lobs the ball into Hurac|in's penalty area and goalkeeper Marcos D|!az comes off to catch the cross. He then runs to the edge of the box and quickly releases it to a teammate. The commentator
wonders, in passing, whether D|!az stepped outside the penalty area, but has no
time for such musings, as Hurac|in mounts a quick counter-attack and, 10 seconds
later, scores what seems to be the match's winning goal.
Was it, though? Referee is called by VAR, goes to check it. D|!az had his feet and body inside the box, but arms are extended and his hands holding the ball can be clearly seen beyond the line. He was surrounded by three Barracas players
at that moment, but things happened so fast that none of them seems to have noticed - indeed, none of them complained at the time. The decision is then made:
no goal, a free kick to Barracas and a yellow card to the unfortunate D|!az.
By now, I scarcely need to tell you what happened when Barracas took that free kick, right?
Madness. I was reminded of this post, from the Best of RSS: http://www.rsssf.com/rssbest/Keepedge.html
So it seems that in the past there was some leeway here, even if only informally
so. Not anymore in the VAR Robots era, though.
I guess that, strictly speaking, this isn't really a "controversy", since the ref indeed made a correct and sound call, in a technical sense. Hurac|in fans don't seem to have grounds to complain about anything but the fates. It still feels strange, though. It's hard to argue that the play wouldn't develop exactly
like it did had D|!az released the ball a fraction of a second earlier (ie, while
it still had a bit of it orthogonally projected over a part of the line). Then again, I suppose the same can be said about, say, every marginal offsides called
in the history of the game.
Regardless, surely an interesting night at Old Palace Duc||, a stadium that has
once featured in an Academy Award winning movie* and now is the site of what was probably the first "big", result-reversing VAR call in the history of Argentinian football.
--
Ll|-o
* "El Secreto de Tus Ojos", or "The Secret in Their Eyes" in English. The stadium scene is available on YouTube and, if you understand Spanish, the scene that leads into it is rather worthy as well.
--- SBBSecho 3.06-Win32
* Origin: SportNet Gateway Site (24:150/2)

On Friday, April 15, 2022 at 9:42:34 AM UTC+2, Ll|-o wrote:

It took long enough, but VAR has finally arrived in Argentina. Their original
idea was to have it since the first semester of 2019, but it ended up being delayed by things like costs discussions and politics, and of course a worldwide pandemic didn't exactly help them on that front.

Brasil uses VAR since 2018, and other local leagues already have it working, such as Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador, Chile and Colombia. But eventually, on March 31st, 2022, the eighth round of the league, VAR finally made its debut in Argentinian professional football.

And 11 days into the VAR era, this happens:

https://twitter.com/juans_perez/status/1513896713836191752?t=MJGarymjoDbLMPIkrHdDiQ&s=19

If you don't want to click on the link above, here's what happens: Hurac|in is
facing Barracas Central at their stadium, "El Palacio" Tom|is Adolfo Duc||. 87
minutes into the game, score is 1-1, Barracas lobs the ball into Hurac|in's penalty area and goalkeeper Marcos D|!az comes off to catch the cross. He then
runs to the edge of the box and quickly releases it to a teammate. The commentator
wonders, in passing, whether D|!az stepped outside the penalty area, but has no
time for such musings, as Hurac|in mounts a quick counter-attack and, 10 seconds
later, scores what seems to be the match's winning goal.

Was it, though? Referee is called by VAR, goes to check it. D|!az had his feet
and body inside the box, but arms are extended and his hands holding the ball
can be clearly seen beyond the line. He was surrounded by three Barracas players
at that moment, but things happened so fast that none of them seems to have noticed - indeed, none of them complained at the time. The decision is then made:
no goal, a free kick to Barracas and a yellow card to the unfortunate D|!az.

By now, I scarcely need to tell you what happened when Barracas took that free
kick, right?

Madness. I was reminded of this post, from the Best of RSS:

http://www.rsssf.com/rssbest/Keepedge.html

So it seems that in the past there was some leeway here, even if only informally
so. Not anymore in the VAR Robots era, though.

I guess that, strictly speaking, this isn't really a "controversy", since the
ref indeed made a correct and sound call, in a technical sense. Hurac|in fans
don't seem to have grounds to complain about anything but the fates. It still
feels strange, though. It's hard to argue that the play wouldn't develop exactly
like it did had D|!az released the ball a fraction of a second earlier (ie, while
it still had a bit of it orthogonally projected over a part of the line). Then
again, I suppose the same can be said about, say, every marginal offsides called
in the history of the game.

Regardless, surely an interesting night at Old Palace Duc||, a stadium that has
once featured in an Academy Award winning movie* and now is the site of what was probably the first "big", result-reversing VAR call in the history of Argentinian football.

Amazing!
And yeah, you really can't argue about the calls.
Ciao
Werner

--
Ll|-o
* "El Secreto de Tus Ojos", or "The Secret in Their Eyes" in English. The stadium scene is available on YouTube and, if you understand Spanish, the scene that leads into it is rather worthy as well.

--- SBBSecho 3.06-Win32
* Origin: SportNet Gateway Site (24:150/2)

On Friday, April 15, 2022 at 6:28:10 PM UTC+2, Werner Pichler wrote:

On Friday, April 15, 2022 at 9:42:34 AM UTC+2, Ll|-o wrote:

It took long enough, but VAR has finally arrived in Argentina. Their original
idea was to have it since the first semester of 2019, but it ended up being
delayed by things like costs discussions and politics, and of course a worldwide pandemic didn't exactly help them on that front.

Brasil uses VAR since 2018, and other local leagues already have it working,
such as Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador, Chile and Colombia. But eventually, on March 31st, 2022, the eighth round of the league, VAR finally made its debut
in Argentinian professional football.

And 11 days into the VAR era, this happens:

https://twitter.com/juans_perez/status/1513896713836191752?t=MJGarymjoDbLMPIkrHdDiQ&s=19

If you don't want to click on the link above, here's what happens: Hurac|in is
facing Barracas Central at their stadium, "El Palacio" Tom|is Adolfo Duc||. 87
minutes into the game, score is 1-1, Barracas lobs the ball into Hurac|in's
penalty area and goalkeeper Marcos D|!az comes off to catch the cross. He then
runs to the edge of the box and quickly releases it to a teammate. The commentator
wonders, in passing, whether D|!az stepped outside the penalty area, but has no
time for such musings, as Hurac|in mounts a quick counter-attack and, 10 seconds
later, scores what seems to be the match's winning goal.

Was it, though? Referee is called by VAR, goes to check it. D|!az had his feet
and body inside the box, but arms are extended and his hands holding the ball
can be clearly seen beyond the line. He was surrounded by three Barracas players
at that moment, but things happened so fast that none of them seems to have
noticed - indeed, none of them complained at the time. The decision is then made:
no goal, a free kick to Barracas and a yellow card to the unfortunate D|!az.

By now, I scarcely need to tell you what happened when Barracas took that free
kick, right?

Madness. I was reminded of this post, from the Best of RSS:

http://www.rsssf.com/rssbest/Keepedge.html

So it seems that in the past there was some leeway here, even if only informally
so. Not anymore in the VAR Robots era, though.

I guess that, strictly speaking, this isn't really a "controversy", since the
ref indeed made a correct and sound call, in a technical sense. Hurac|in fans
don't seem to have grounds to complain about anything but the fates. It still
feels strange, though. It's hard to argue that the play wouldn't develop exactly
like it did had D|!az released the ball a fraction of a second earlier (ie, while
it still had a bit of it orthogonally projected over a part of the line). Then
again, I suppose the same can be said about, say, every marginal offsides called
in the history of the game.

Regardless, surely an interesting night at Old Palace Duc||, a stadium that has
once featured in an Academy Award winning movie* and now is the site of what
was probably the first "big", result-reversing VAR call in the history of Argentinian football.

Amazing!

And yeah, you really can't argue about the calls.

Also, I'd like to know what happened between minutes 45:48 and 48:20!
Although I can guess... :)
Ciao,
Werner
--- SBBSecho 3.06-Win32
* Origin: SportNet Gateway Site (24:150/2)

Referee is called by VAR, goes to check it. D|!az had his feet and body inside the box, but arms are extended and his hands holding the ball
can be clearly seen beyond the line.

Can't wait to see VAR on some crazy USA lined field.
I once refereed a woman's college game, on a turf field, where they had
all kinds of lines of different colors, for football, American football,
rugby, and maybe some others for smaller field games going in the
orthogonal direction.
American football fields are quite narrower compared to football. There
were at least two incidents where throw-ins were taken from the American football side line, well inside the football field, and had to be
repeated. On one of them both teams did it in succession, as they
really didn't understand what was going on, with the original team
awarded the throw-in finally getting it right.
There was also a line, probably the "twenty yard line" from American
football, two yards out from the penalty box, and yes, both keepers kept punting the ball from that line instead of the top of the box.
This was a slow game, not between top teams, and I decided to let it go.
Most of the punts in these kinds of games don't really lead anywhere. I
had to tell one of the assistant referees to stop flagging them, and he
didn't take it lightly, may have complained to the head referee after
the game for all I know.
Thus I bent the rules to go with the "spirit of the game". Wouldn't be
able to have done it with better teams, TV, VAR, etc.
-- HASM
--- SBBSecho 3.06-Win32
* Origin: SportNet Gateway Site (24:150/2)

On Friday, April 15, 2022 at 8:42:34 AM UTC+1, Ll|-o wrote:

Brasil uses VAR since 2018, and other local leagues already have it working, such as Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador, Chile and Colombia. But eventually, on March 31st, 2022, the eighth round of the league, VAR finally made its debut in Argentinian professional football.

It wouldn't have been the League. The Argentinian League Championship doesn't start till June. It was probably the Copa de la liga profesional.

And 11 days into the VAR era, this happens:

https://twitter.com/juans_perez/status/1513896713836191752?t=MJGarymjoDbLMPIkrHdDiQ&s=19

If you don't want to click on the link above, here's what happens: Hurac|in is
facing Barracas Central at their stadium, "El Palacio" Tom|is Adolfo Duc||. 87
minutes into the game, score is 1-1, Barracas lobs the ball into Hurac|in's penalty area and goalkeeper Marcos D|!az comes off to catch the cross. He then
runs to the edge of the box and quickly releases it to a teammate. The commentator
wonders, in passing, whether D|!az stepped outside the penalty area, but has no
time for such musings, as Hurac|in mounts a quick counter-attack and, 10 seconds
later, scores what seems to be the match's winning goal.

Was it, though? Referee is called by VAR, goes to check it. D|!az had his feet
and body inside the box, but arms are extended and his hands holding the ball
can be clearly seen beyond the line. He was surrounded by three Barracas players
at that moment, but things happened so fast that none of them seems to have noticed - indeed, none of them complained at the time. The decision is then made:
no goal, a free kick to Barracas and a yellow card to the unfortunate D|!az.

A yellow card sounds harsh. It doesn't sound likely to have been deliberate. --- SBBSecho 3.06-Win32
* Origin: SportNet Gateway Site (24:150/2)