Friendly vs Beijing BG | Tuesday 14 Feb | 7pm | RoF

That was fun. 
Patrick was very entertaining throughout the game.

The Battle of the drums! I note the video refereeing is taking some heat in today's paper & on "Stuff" and rightly so imho......but then I read who the match officials were and it says it all really. I didn't recognise them visually. Referee Alan Milliner and lead VAR Kris Griffiths-Jones.  Two not known for their competence.

Quite impressed with singh last night, maybe need to get that lad signed up on contract. Also, Lowry looking good at centre half ( do we still have centre halfs or is the correct term centre back?) Even Fox was wasnt bad despite some late challenges. Kosta on the other hand I thougth was dire, some of the younger squad members who came on put him to shame in my opinion

A foul off the ball is still a foul, and a foul in the box is always a penalty. Technically, it is probably the right decision according to the letter of the law - if the ref is going to say its a foul and it's in the box, the ref can't just give a free kick can he? Though bizarre as we already knew that Fox was never going to get to the ball. Maybe that area of the rules needs a bit of tweaking when the video ref is involved.

That's why they test VAR in meaningless games to test and learn from it. I hope in the case someone takes a dive he gets a yellow after the video replay.

Die Bundesliga will introduce it next season. They tested it the first half of the season and had 44 wrong decision, 33 of them could be solved by the VAR. They need 10 to 40 seconds to look at it and decide.

Here is the VAR incident from last nights game

So 

53:43 "Foul" takes places

54:25 Ref Whistles to check

54:41 Ref makes it to screen

55:22 Penalty awarded

56:45 Goal scored. 

Kudos to Patricio for getting Bohemian Rhapsody started, that was tremendous !

Biggest problem is it looks to me like 2 players attacking the ball. No complaint from Nix player.  Did the ref decide it first and second.

Had to work till midnight last night so did not see game?

Think the VAR was the one that flagged it to the ref that he might want to check it. 

This and you can't give a free kick (to the attacking team) in the box, it is either a penalty or not. Can't say well there was a soft foul there what we will do is move it out of the box and give the attacking team a free kick

In terms of the Laws Of The Game, it's irrelevant whether there was interference with the ball or the attack. The shove itself is the offence.

Small sample size, but if that is the threshold for the VAR to flag incidents to the ref, and if each referral takes 90 seconds to decide (either confirming decision or overturning), then I'm not sure it's really worth it. I've seen HAL games this season that would have had 4/5 of those incidents in a game. 

We'll be getting referrals at every corner kick. 

In reality, that particular free kick, there was probably the least amount of pushing and shoving going on that you will see at any set piece.

SUCCESS!

So what initiates a review - everytime a Video Ref thinks there is something to look at?

If you are gonna review stuff, you need to review all aspects of it - Lowry looked suspiciously offside to me, and if so that would have to be given first.

Surely the ref isnt the best person to run over an look at a little TV screen, that looked really village.

What is your opinion of my last sentence, no one has commented on that which I was hoping for.

Yeah, goal line technology makes sense - improves the game, but doesn't slow it down.

It's also pretty much objective - either it is over the line or not. Not as contentious a decision as 'did this player go down too easily' or 'was his shirt tugged enough?'

If that's how it's going to be used I for one don't like it and I can only imagine the stink had we been on the receiving end of that decision.

Find it interesting no comment on the issue LG raised. Have to say was disappointed in some of what I heard. Thought some of it was a bit our of line given who our major sponsor is and those who were in front of the zone.

Had a bloody good laugh at shirts off at the mad dash by one of their fans to get shots of the girls in their bras. I'm guessing girls your all a big hit on chinese social media sites LOL

I don't think you can discount the VFR due to the time it took to make a decision, based on one example from the first time it has ever been used live - during a friendly no less. Maybe they were just looking for an excuse to test it out.

Check my updated post above. In the Bundesliga it took only 10 to 40 sec to decide. Seems like the fourth official can decide and referee only check if he wants, so no walking up the TV screen, checking it and walking back.

But yes 4 x a 90 sec sounds pretty boring, Imagine to listen to FOX commentators debating it as well? Nightmare!

The time decide is only one factor though. There's the time it takes for the VAR to check to advise an incident has occurred. And that doesn't factor in cases whether the ball doesn't go out. So play has to be called back etc. There was a case in the CWC similar to this. 

This was the incident. https://twitter.com/Dale_Warburton/status/80932675...

Ref halts the start of play, clearly because the VAR is still checking over a minute after the event.

Things like VAR are never going to be perfect when it's first implemented. Yes it might suck in the short term, but there is potential for huge benefits long term if they can develop it into a product that is beneficial to the quality of the decisions, without hugely interrupting the flow of the game. It has been mentioned that 4-5 in a game would be too disruptive, and to me if it is needed 4-5 times a game then questions need to be asked about the refs, if they are making that many game changing mistakes. Would think a usual game would only need 1-2 maximum if the refs are up to standard.

With regards to the time it took, most of that was the ref running to and back from the screen at halfway, and then the Beijing players complaining (and ironically pointing to the replay on the big screen). Does it have to be the ref that looks at the tiny screen? They also showed what he was looking at on the big screen, so why can't the 4th official be at the pitch side screen, and the ref looks at the big screen, then they discuss and come to a decision together? Would also be interesting to compare that to the usual time it takes between a penalty incident occurring and the spot kick being taken. 

Totally agree with that. I think the end result is we'll see the VFR used once or twice a game, if that. For critical game-changing decisions only. Sydney would most likely be not on their crazy unbeaten run if we had the VFR since the beginning of the season...

based on that coverage (unfortunately we don't see the ref finish at the screen)

42 secs: Time taken for VAR to inform ref
16 secs: Time take for ref to arrive at screen
41 secs: Time taken for ref to get back in position and award penalty
83 secs: Time taken to score penalty. 

The last stage is irrelevant given that would have happened if the pen was awarded first time.

Assume ref takes 16 secs each way to screen and back. That's 32 seconds. Meaning it took 25 odd seconds to make a decisions. That seems reasonable.

So the longest time is actually the first stage where the VAR is re-checking the event. This seems to be the real problem because this could delay the restart of a game if the VAR has checked a replay quickly enough. 

The CWC one went like this:

0 secs: Foul
47 secs: Time for ball to go out of play
61 secs: Time taken for ref to be informed of event by VAR
15 secs: Time taken to arrive at screen
17 secs: Time taken for ref award penalty

So based on both example it took about 30 seconds to get to the screen and back, and 15-20 seconds to make a decision. But in the CWC example, it took 108 secs for the VAR to inform the ref. That's nuts. Perhaps an extreme example. 

I've been thinking about this. I'd like to know the stats during the trials about how many times a decision has been overturned. You'd really want it to be in the 90 percents. Are VAR really only calling the ref over for obvious mistakes. Because you don't want the ref to come over 4-5 times a game, waste all that time, and then go "na decision stands".

I am truly pleased the VAR was trialled in a friendly. Can you imagine if it was a first trialled in a regular HAL game.

I can't wait until it goes live in the A-league. Imagine the angst.

And that has been an issue in every other sport it has been brought into.  And the problem is that it will be used in tough 50/50 decisions that will need to be viewed multiple times to get a result, sometimes minutes after the incident has occoured if the ball does not go out of play for a while.

Given the drama other sports have had trying to use this type if technology nothing about it suggests it will enhance my match day experience. They want to use this type of stuff then use it for things that will improve things. Use it as a match review for things like diving and foul play not picked up by the refs. Would rather see a genuine attempt at stopping the abuse of officials than going down this route.

Did they announce the attendance?

Or appear in some porn magazine.

On Dale's point - in use in an A League game, pity the poor crowd when Berisha does his flopping fish act every ten mintues. Could make for a very long game.