England v Switzerland | Vital Football

England v Switzerland

Good to see we won on penalties.

On overall balance of play we were better side and hit woodwork on multiple occasions.
 
devonexlondonimp said:
Still crazy moments at the back for England.

Can`t say i am loving VAR...........only when it goes in my favour?
Click to expand...

Not a fan of VAR at all from what I’ve seen, not because of the two decisions that went against us, but for the fact that it was supposed to cut out glaring errors, neither of which I thought were
In the Netherlands game a goal was overturned for an offside bootlace. Surely we need to go with “umpires decision” as in cricket for such fine margins. The defender and attacking player were effectively level.
The one today against the Swiss, not much contact but maybe a sleight arm pull causing the defender, strangely, to fall in the opposite direction to the apparent pull. Interestingly the commentators actually mentioned that it was one of those that probably wouldn’t have been given anywhere else on the pitch
I know it’s the ref that actually reverses his own decision after being advised to check ( rather than him being overruled by a fifth official or whatever) and that probably means that he can’t do much else
I know most of us grumble over poor refereeing decisions at SB ( me included) but I’m not sure this is the answer. Maybe it’s the way that it’s being used rather than VAR per se. Half a yard offside fine but half an inch
I just feel we’re in danger of ruining our National game
 
collingham imps said:
VAR should only be used for goal-line decisions - using it generally in a game spoils it and holds up play - the refs and assistants need to make decisions and be held accountable for them.
Click to expand...

The goal line stuff is different technology and has been used to good effect for the past season. VAR has its uses as the game has moved on beyond the physical capabilities of many referees so they need some assistance. It is possibly being over-used but its new so this may balance out in due course. Irrespective of this though it's here to stay and we have to get used to it
 
why check for fouls only after a goal?
does var check every time any defender pushes or pulls an attacker in the box? as missing a penalty is quite a glaring error.

i am sure the defenders were pulling attackers in the penalty area throughout the 120 minutes. as much as wilson pulled their fella for the goal.

the game is going to become very stop/start. might suit the americans.
 
VAR is useful for checking things like whether a foul was committed inside or outside the penalty area.

I absolutely don't like it for interpretations of fouls or handball as invariably it only changes one controversial opinion for another, as was the case with the PSG-Man Utd game which pretty much confirmed to me that if anyone thinks it will be the answer to anything, they're mistaken.

The situation with offside is another where it causes more problems than it solves. If the linesman is told not to flag we're going to see a great many cases of goals being scored that are subsequently chalked off - and that's going to ruin football as a spectacle no matter how many times ex pro gobshites tell us that it doesn't matter as long as you get the "right" decision. Those people have never paid to see a game in their lives.

It ruined the end of the Man City-Spurs CL game when City thought they'd got an injury time winner only to robbed of it. Correctly, because there was an offside in the build up, but in a pre-VAR game the linesman would almost certainly have flagged when Aguero received the ball. It also meant that the anti-climax made the final 90 seconds of a previously exciting game a complete farce.

If they're going to carry on with this they need to find of a way of telling the crowd there's a potential offside and go all gridiron with the yellow flags or something.
 
NottyImp said:
VAR is a complete abomination that will ruin football as entertainment, which is what it should be.
Click to expand...
I have given this some thought recently. If it were not close season, it would be the subject of a monthly article.

I fully accept that I am a football dinosaur, from the Sixties and Seventies, with ideas that are forty years out of date and more. Curiously, younger football supporters believe VAR is a great addition to the game, which I find incredible. But I am a dinosaur, remember. If that is the case, so be it. But I am going to say this anyway.

With all the money in the game today, and with all those wonderful footballers from all over the world plying their trade in English football (and they are wonderful), why do I think football was better forty years ago? And by a significant margin?

It could be due to all the money in the game that has attracted a breathtaking assortment of crooks and mercenaries from all walks of life. It could be due to the advent and overuse of technology, driven and enhanced by the microscopically analytical eye of television. Perhaps. But personally I blame the rule changes made by IFAB (FIFA by another name) during that period. Actually in very recent years, but we'll gloss over that for the purposes of this rant.

Why does the morass of rule changes over the last twenty years make the game a far worse spectacle in my eyes? Because every subsequent rule change designed to clarify previous rules actually makes everything worse. It has been known since Roman times that the more rules you have, the less enjoyable and the less workable everything becomes. Until you arrive at the point where everything simply grinds to a halt.

IFAB (FIFA, remember) has realised that, so now they have given us VAR to sort everything out, to provide certainty. So why does the advent of VAR make my blood boil? Why do I see it as the latest nail in the coffin of football as an entertainment?

Possibly because it obliterates everything that makes football exciting. Speed, strength, intensity, fluency. Goodbye, fluency. If you need a roomful of referees a hundred miles away to do the job that was done perfectly well by one referee and two linesmen only a few short years ago, you have got something very wrong somewhere along the line.

Will FIFA realise that?

No, of course not. The only thing FIFA realises is how to make the maximum amount of money from its deteriorating product in as short a timescale as possible. Like it or not, VAR is here to stay, and will shortly be rolled out across football at all levels and across all major football playing countries. We will have it at Lincoln within a couple of years, for sure. I'm sorry, but we will.

At least we will know for sure that John Akinde's left bootlace was marginally (but mathematically and therefore correctly) offside when he scored the last minute winner that wasn't against Portsmouth in March 2021.

Anyone feel better for knowing that?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.