Topic: The Push Square Football (Soccer) Thread

I see the PGMOL have released the audio from the Diaz offside decision. Haven't given it a listen yet but will be curious to know what the rest of you think about it.

@KAIRU This comes to mind when I listened to it....

@BAMozzy the linesman DID let play continue. Hence Diaz scoring. He couldn’t have scored otherwise?

Thursday in the UAE has nothing to do with it. Plenty of officials referee European games midweek and at weekend. No idea what you are jumping to with officials in UAE and city being owned by a state. Talk about conspiracy.

It’s literally human error for mistaking it, and the IFAB rules not allowing the game to be stopped after it had restarted.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner He put the flag up to indicate that 'he' thought Luis Diaz was offside - hence the 'onfield' decision was 'offside' so that is a Mistake in itself. The fact is that the 'onfield' decision was 'offside' is where the issue first started going wrong! Regardless of whether 'play' continued long enough for Luis to score, the fact the Linesman indicasted he was Offside was the 'first' mistake!

If they had given the goal on field, as they should have done, then none of this would have happened - VAR would check he is onside, check complete, goal given - move on. Therefore it started with the ON FIELD officials who ruled that goal 'offside' and only compounded by VAR.

As for the UAE and state owned clubs, yes that is exactly my point about fueling conspiracies. It doesn't take much for people to put the things together and come up with some narrative to fit, a conspiracy theory as to why these officials made such a glaring mistake. It doesn't take much to from being 'tired' from all that travel, to getting paid by Saudi's which then can lead to Bribary claims etc and I've seen it across Social Media - hence I said it doesn't look good and fuels Conspiracy theorists...

At the end of the day, it wasn't 'just' VAR, it was the team of Officials - the On field who 'incorrectly' ruled Offside and then VAR who compounded that mistake with yet another mistake...

@KAIRU Too many cooks in the kitchen. Talking over each other. Not knowing what was being checked for. Just trying to complete the process as quickly as possible & following procedure.
The replay operator seemed most in the know, but was completely ignored until it was seemingly too late.

Also I’m pretty sure there’s been precedent of pulling back the game before despite starting ‘another play’.
Wasn’t Zidane pulled back for the headbutt. Ref missed it at first & let play go on.

@Fight_Teza_Fight To give a more recent example, last season in a Man U match, both teams were called back on the pitch after the final whistle was blown, so Man U could take a penalty.

There are probably more, but that is the only one I could think off the top of my head.

@JohnnyShoulder @Fight_Teza_Fight I think I heard somewhere that the reason that particular United match was restarted after the final whistle was because VAR were still reviewing whatever the issue was. before the game ended. I'm hazy on the details and I could be misremembering but I think that's the gist of it. I'm not sure how or where that comes into the rules though.

As for the Diaz debacle, I saw Klopp mentioned he wants the game replayed. Would he be saying that if Liverpool had won the game? I doubt it.

Just seen the penalty given against Real Madrid for handball. I mean, I know the match was yesterday but bloody hell. What an utterly ridiculous decision.

Yeah bring back burning people at the stake. Specifically for refs.

Oh my God, Newcastle United. 😲

Christian Romero. What an absolute Rolls Royce of a defender. Micky van de Ven is a proper unit too.

@nessisonett

@JohnnyShoulder There’s a slight annoyance that we qualified through Spain beating Norway and not off our own merits but that’s more a testament to how well we played in the rest of the campaign. My whole life without a hint of qualification and now we’re in two Euros in a row, it’s mad.

@nessisonett If I could post Vinny's rally call against the French from that film, I would!

@JohnnyShoulder GARLIC BREAD TOSSERS

@nessisonett 🤣

Neymar out with an ACL injury.
It’s weird to say, but is he the closest ‘could’ve been one of the goats’ of football?
Always felt like he should’ve achieved more. Again weird to say about someone that’s Brazil’s all time leading goal scorer.

Adriano comes to mind, but his career was affected by the death of his father- rather than footballing decisions.

Also I’m really loving The Rest is Football. Shearer has really grown on me. It’s great fun & the recent Thierry Henry interview was brilliant.
Sort of dropped Stick to Football (seriously these names). Love Keane, but the whole show just feels a bit ‘save’ or diplomatic & you can tell they actively try to avoid certain topics/viewpoints.

@nessisonett I get that - but the reality is Scotland qualified on Merit by winning their first 5 games beating Norway (away) and Spain (home). That game can be looked at as Norway's last hope of putting pressure on Scotland and Spain to slip up but failed, thus giving Scotland their place after such a good start to their campaign.

The first job is to get points on the board to ensure you are in a position to Qualify when the 'crunch' matches come - Scotland did that so that they qualify with several matches to spare. Its better than going into the last fixture and relying on a team to beat another to ensure you qualify.

It is 'special' to get the Result you want/need to ensure Qualification on the pitch in front of the Fans, but sometimes the fixtures don't align that way, where a result when you are not playing can go your way - it happens in the League too where a team may play a mid-week fixture they 'need' to win to stop another from claiming the title, but drop points - even though they only had a 'mathematical' chance of catching assuming the team lost their remaining fixtures. All that is remembered though is they won the league, qualified with matches to spare etc...

@BAMozzy Yeah obviously we’re all glad we qualified, but it definitely would have been nice to have more of a celebration on the pitch. Maybe we would have if VAR wasn’t a mess 😉

@nessisonett Yeah I know - as I said I know how Special it is to get the result in front of your fans on the Pitch but the next time they take to the pitch, they come out as Qualifiers and fans can celebrate their achievement before a ball is kicked. I'd rather Qualify this way than be waiting after the Final Whistle in hope that results in other matches go your way. The fact is Scotland Qualify from a tough group with matches to spare and means the 'next' match, you are not watching anxiously, hoping that Scotland don't slip up or have to rely on others dropping points - they qualified on merit with their first 5 matches.

Don't talk to me about VAR LOL - as a Liverpool fan too. I am half Scot (from my Mothers Side) so I was just happy they Qualified and got the points they needed to ensure Qualification - beating both Spain and Norway to reach enough points that it made Norway needing to 'win' to put pressure on Scotland to slip-up. If Norway won, that could have put a LOT of pressure on Scotland to beat Norway again in the last match to Qualify and would be a very different match to watch for Scottish fans...