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Offside situation Qatar – Ecuador World Cup 2022
Less than three minutes into the Qatar World Cup and the first extraordinary situation was a fact. What many believed to be a flawless Ecuador goal was decisively disallowed by VAR. Twitter exploded with people accusing Qatar of bribery. When the agitation of the situation subsided, it became clear what was really going on. The goal was, according to the rules of the game, a justified offside. You can read about the reason in this article.
Offside goal Enner Valencia
From the first minute, it was already clear that Ecuador played better than Qatar. After a strange move by Al-Sheeb – Qatar's goalkeeper – an unsuccessful overtake accidentally turned into a cross from which a goal was scored. It would have been the fastest goal ever to be made at an opening match of a World Cup.
It initially didn’t appear to be offside, as a defender of Qatar was the one standing closest to the goal. He then lifts offside, doesn’t he? In addition, it looked like keeper Al-Sheeb boxed the ball upward which resulted in a footballer of Ecuador getting the ball. If that would’ve been the last action, it wouldn’t have been offside. With the emphasis on if.
But it can be concluded that it was offside. An Ecuador footballer, Torres, got the ball on his head in between all that happened. The receiver of the header was Estrada, and he was offside by one foot.
The confusion firstly lies in the fact that the goalkeeper is not the last man but a field player of Qatar is, and secondly in that an Ecuador player headed the ball whereas the Qatar goalkeeper didn't touch it. In short: an absolutely justified rejected goal.
Semi-automatic VAR
The reason why the fuss lasted so long, was because clear footage of the offside situation was only shown after several minutes. This is because the semi-automatic VAR had yet to edit an animation that could be shown to the public. This 'new' technology uses 12 tracking cameras and 29 data points on each player's body. In addition, the ball contains a chip. Data is transmitted to the VAR room over 500 times per second.
As soon as a player is in an offside position, the alarm bells ring. The system recognized the offside instantly, while the audience and the referees were still waiting for an explanation from the super smart VAR technology.
