[Football] Oh to be Watford

[Triggaaar]

I suspect VAR will be taken over by the stadium people who will try to make it part of the "experience". I await VAR music.

With Palace having sudden VAR room power-cuts when required.

 

[Easy 10]

So what you would prefer, would be for a good goal to be cancelled out due to an incorrect offside decision?

No.

I'd prefer for the whole stupid idea to be dropped. Its shite. What we gain in (some) corrected decisions, we lose in more additional layers of controversy, delays, people at the game sitting around saying "whats this one about then" while the ref fingers his ear, loss of spontanaity in goal celebrations, and an end result that STILL fundamentally relies on an opinion and an interpretation that not everybody agrees with. Which we already had anyway before Mr Heathrow in his studio got involved.

This old game has survived 150 years without this ill-conceived, randomly operated, inconsistently applied GUBBINS called VAR. I mean FFS, they didn't even bother with pitchside monitors this weekend, when they did at the World Cup last year, and at the Amex. But not at Wembley. Who's in charge ?? Its an absolute cuffing MESS.

Get.
Rid.

(too late now though. we're stuck with it, for better or worse),

 

[perseus]

Did some of thee Watford fans leave at 1-2 ?

 

[Easy 10]

Did some of thee Watford fans leave at 1-2 ?

I very much doubt it, being as they were only about half a dozen stops away on the Metropolitan. Any that did deserve to be boiled alive in their own faeces.

 

[Return of the Rev]

Did some of thee Watford fans leave at 1-2 ?

Alot of Brighton left before the FW at 1-0.

 

[nicko31]

Alot of Brighton left before the FW at 1-0.

Few around me did, just weird....

 

[BBassic]

I suspect VAR will be taken over by the stadium people who will try to make it part of the "experience". I await VAR music.

Countdown theme or it's BARBER OUT for me!

 

[Durlston]

Did some of thee Watford fans leave at 1-2 ?

I saw a lot of empty seats from 87-88 mins onwards. I guess they wait in the concourse, if they hear a cheer they go back in but 30 seconds from the end of injury time, run up Wembley way towards the tube to beat the crowds.

Yesterday proved why I love football. A small Premier League club who have established themselves with a team of street fighters against a side doped up by money that breaks FFP rules and they still believed in themselves, even at 0-2.

Good luck Watford - you can do a Wigan.

 

[Gritt23]

I was watching the game soundless. The review appeared to be focusing on whether Raul had handballed it before he volleyed it in - which he hadn't. Goal stood, but THEN we see the potential offside issue prior to that.

Sorry, but if we're literally getting down to drawing lines across the pitch to measure TOENAILS on these decisions, then YES, the games gone. You might love it, I think its shite. Clear and obvious my arse. I just knew we'd end up here. But the genie is well and out of the bottle now, and we're stuck with it.

Yay.

Give it up mate, you've got this one wrong.

Your "miles offside" was actually onside, therefore your "worst VAR decision ever" was actually correct.

Oh and the penalty that you were screaming was given by VAR to "balance it up" was given by the ref, and again not over-turned - correctly.

I know that you will criticise VAR after virtually every decision they do and don't make, but this game isn't the one to get on your high horse, beating your drum about. The ref made the right call twice, and VAR merely confirmed them. Time to step away now, you don't like VAR, we get it, but it did absolutely NOTHING wrong yesterday.

 

[Durlston]

You had me at Big Boobs

I was being serious although seeing the lovely Katherine Jenkins in a skimpy top is a beautiful sight indeed.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Alot of Brighton left before the FW at 1-0.

Few around me did, just weird....

It wasn't many though, and a lot stayed to applaud the team off. You'd have thought we'd won the game looking around the stadium.

Watford fans would have had less of a journey than most of us to the Amex yesterday.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

No.

I'd prefer for the whole stupid idea to be dropped. Its shite. What we gain in (some) corrected decisions, we lose in more additional layers of controversy, delays, people at the game sitting around saying "whats this one about then" while the ref fingers his ear, loss of spontanaity in goal celebrations, and an end result that STILL fundamentally relies on an opinion and an interpretation that not everybody agrees with. Which we already had anyway before Mr Heathrow in his studio got involved.

This old game has survived 150 years without this ill-conceived, randomly operated, inconsistently applied GUBBINS called VAR. I mean FFS, they didn't even bother with pitchside monitors this weekend, when they did at the World Cup last year, and at the Amex. But not at Wembley. Who's in charge ?? Its an absolute cuffing MESS.

Get.
Rid.

(too late now though. we're stuck with it, for better or worse),

This, absolutely this. The whole thing is so poorly done. Football is not a sport that lends itself easily to the Video Ref. In sports like Cricket and Tennis there is a natural stop start to the game which means it's easy for the video replay to be used and it's also very well defined how it works. Even in both the codes of Rugby it works way better than it has in Football.

 

[Triggaaar]

No.

I'd prefer for the whole stupid idea to be dropped. Its shite. What we gain in (some) corrected decisions, we lose in more additional layers of controversy, delays, people at the game sitting around saying "whats this one about then" while the ref fingers his ear, loss of spontanaity in goal celebrations, and an end result that STILL fundamentally relies on an opinion and an interpretation that not everybody agrees with. Which we already had anyway before Mr Heathrow in his studio got involved.

This old game has survived 150 years without this ill-conceived, randomly operated, inconsistently applied GUBBINS called VAR. I mean FFS, they didn't even bother with pitchside monitors this weekend, when they did at the World Cup last year, and at the Amex. But not at Wembley. Who's in charge ?? Its an absolute cuffing MESS.

Although I disagree with all that, I can understand that's how you feel about it. But it's still weird you've chosen an example of VAR working well to air your frustration.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

No.

I'd prefer for the whole stupid idea to be dropped. Its shite. What we gain in (some) corrected decisions, we lose in more additional layers of controversy, delays, people at the game sitting around saying "whats this one about then" while the ref fingers his ear, loss of spontanaity in goal celebrations, and an end result that STILL fundamentally relies on an opinion and an interpretation that not everybody agrees with. Which we already had anyway before Mr Heathrow in his studio got involved.

This old game has survived 150 years without this ill-conceived, randomly operated, inconsistently applied GUBBINS called VAR. I mean FFS, they didn't even bother with pitchside monitors this weekend, when they did at the World Cup last year, and at the Amex. But not at Wembley. Who's in charge ?? Its an absolute cuffing MESS.

Get.
Rid.

(too late now though. we're stuck with it, for better or worse),

I fundamentally disagree with this.

Some people have emoted in anguish about every innovation we now take for granted:

Smoking in pubs
Seat belts
Sexual harrassment in the workplace (love)
Racial rescrimination as part of staff recruitment
The cane at school
Drink driving laws
Women getting the vote
The rule of thumb (a big favourite of mine).

In 2 or 3 years time nobody will be complaining about VAR (except the lower league clubs, hankering for a bit of it), any more than people now storm out of pubs when they find they can't spark up.

 

[Napper]

Noise from yesterdays game was fantastic at times.

Not sure we got anywhere near that level unfortunately other than the Alllbbbiiiooonnnn chants that seemed to get everyone involved

Fair play to Watford , showed some character there and fantastic to see wolves lose like that.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Have to echo [MENTION=70]Easy 10[/MENTION] on this, the way they have set VAR up, we could end up with reviews for every goal and penalty area decision. The early signs are really worrying imho. In almost all other sports, the competing teams have recourse to the technology with the principle it is them that have the right to undo a wrong and correct a bad decision. It has taken a decade for cricket captains to realise they waste the opportunity of correcting a bad decision if they use up their reviews when they are desperate for a wicket. Cricket gives the umpire the ultimate say, any margin for error it stays with the umpire. Having only 3 reviews limits the captain from using it too frequently. Cricket has mostly revealed itself to having some great umpires backed by by technology, they have actually got better, bolder.

However VAR is still clumsy, down to the officials to check their own decisions. In the pressure of big games will we be at a junction of every decision being reviewed, when there is no limit or discretion for it?

In the case of this weekend, I would agree that VAR served it's purpose of supporting the on field decisions, but only just. In cricket we know it has to be more than half the ball to overturn an LBW because the umpire has the overriding say. In football we have no such definition. If every goal with a striker close to being level being reviewed, then the game is screwed, and with that I think [MENTION=70]Easy 10[/MENTION] is right, even if VAR works in its decision making, the game could be ruined as a spectacle, and our going delirious at a goal replaced by hushed tense silence with a referee with his finger to his ear.

 

[Triggaaar]

Noise from yesterdays game was fantastic at times.

Not sure we got anywhere near that level unfortunately other than the Alllbbbiiiooonnnn chants that seemed to get everyone involved

Hardly surprising given that
a) City fans can't be bothered, it was an unimportant semi to most of them
b) we went behind after 3 minutes, and very few of us thought we had a chance after that

 

[Lush]

I enjoyed 'veteran' 30-year-old Troy Deeney chasing after that ball down the wing in the last 5 minutes. The very definition of 'running through treacle'. To be fair though he had put in a right shift.

 

[Easy 10]

Have to echo [MENTION=70]Easy 10[/MENTION] on this, the way they have set VAR up, we could end up with reviews for every goal and penalty area decision. The early signs are really worrying imho. In almost all other sports, the competing teams have recourse to the technology with the principle it is them that have the right to undo a wrong and correct a bad decision. It has taken a decade for cricket captains to realise they waste the opportunity of correcting a bad decision if they use up their reviews when they are desperate for a wicket. Cricket gives the umpire the ultimate say, any margin for error it stays with the umpire. Having only 3 reviews limits the captain from using it too frequently. Cricket has mostly revealed itself to having some great umpires backed by by technology, they have actually got better, bolder.

However VAR is still clumsy, down to the officials to check their own decisions. In the pressure of big games will we be at a junction of every decision being reviewed, when there is no limit or discretion for it?

In the case of this weekend, I would agree that VAR served it's purpose of supporting the on field decisions, but only just. In cricket we know it has to be more than half the ball to overturn an LBW because the umpire has the overriding say. In football we have no such definition. If every goal with a striker close to being level being reviewed, then the game is screwed, and with that I think [MENTION=70]Easy 10[/MENTION] is right, even if VAR works in its decision making, the game could be ruined as a spectacle, and our going delirious at a goal replaced by hushed tense silence with a referee with his finger to his ear.

Great summing up, and you won't be suprised that I echo every word.

Barney Ronay nailed it for me in his match report https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ar-escape-football-fa-cup-semi-final-brighton

At the end of which there were two points worth taking.

The first involved VAR, or rather the usual interminable debate over its application. With 32 minutes gone Kyle Walker shepherded the ball out near the City goal. Alireza Jahanbakhsh seemed to stand on his leg as he fell over. Walker sprang up and pressed his head to the Brighton man’s forehead in that strange, oddly sensual footballer’s embrace.

As ever the question here, with heads docked, was which of these nuzzling stags would make the mistake of applying a fatal forward shove. This time it was Walker, although it was more a kind of downward stroke with the brow, a cheese grater effect.

At which point, enter football’s great dunderheaded experiment with the idea that certainty can be introduced to a game of marginal calls. From his bunker Paul Tierney, hot foot up the motorway from Southampton on Friday night, judged it to be a yellow card.
There will be those who feel Walker should have been sent off. In isolation it looked like an outlawed duck of the head, a strict liability offence in freeze frame, never mind the provocation. But then, who really knows? The answer, of course, is: no one knows. There is nothing to know. There is no objective truth, no definitive answer. Other than the fact poorly applied VAR is the same as poor refereeing, only slightly worse because it takes longer. All we really have are opinions, and endless wearying debate.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Great summing up, and you won't be suprised that I echo every word.

Barney Ronay nailed it for me in his match report https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ar-escape-football-fa-cup-semi-final-brighton

At the end of which there were two points worth taking.

The first involved VAR, or rather the usual interminable debate over its application. With 32 minutes gone Kyle Walker shepherded the ball out near the City goal. Alireza Jahanbakhsh seemed to stand on his leg as he fell over. Walker sprang up and pressed his head to the Brighton man’s forehead in that strange, oddly sensual footballer’s embrace.

As ever the question here, with heads docked, was which of these nuzzling stags would make the mistake of applying a fatal forward shove. This time it was Walker, although it was more a kind of downward stroke with the brow, a cheese grater effect.

At which point, enter football’s great dunderheaded experiment with the idea that certainty can be introduced to a game of marginal calls. From his bunker Paul Tierney, hot foot up the motorway from Southampton on Friday night, judged it to be a yellow card.
There will be those who feel Walker should have been sent off. In isolation it looked like an outlawed duck of the head, a strict liability offence in freeze frame, never mind the provocation. But then, who really knows? The answer, of course, is: no one knows. There is nothing to know. There is no objective truth, no definitive answer. Other than the fact poorly applied VAR is the same as poor refereeing, only slightly worse because it takes longer. All we really have are opinions, and endless wearying debate.

Another classic bit of VAR tonight!