Aguero offside was a good call? It was a terrible call. He was coming back on and not seeking to gain an advantage. He gained no advantage whatsoever. Absolutely ridiculous call.
I know it won't but that incident should signal the end of VAR as it currently exists.
If the goal stands, the finish to the game would be equally exciting and instead of Llorente's goal being controversial, Sterling's goal would be. But that scenario is just as plausible because the referee and the linesman did not make any kind of decision to be reviewed. If the little men in the secret room had let it go, nobody would know at the time. The argument would develop later, the headlines would be different. In another game with two different teams, a different outcome could occur and almost everybody would be happy with it, human error they'd say later.
One poster pointed out the difference from one frame to another. On Wednesday night, Liverpool scored a goal that was immediately signaled offside by the linesman. VAR overruled the decision and the picture shown was not in line with the ball, the ball itself was obscured by one of the players, but the commentators spoke as if it proved Mane was onside. Presumably, that picture with red and blue lines was provided by the host broadcaster. Move the video forward and Mane looks offside but they didn't show any lines on that frame. What they showed really wasn't conclusive and you just had to take it on trust.
Same with Sterling's goal, except that they didn't even bother to show the decisive contact and draw their stupid lines. So, they abused their own system twice in City's game and once in the Porto game. They've got away with it, as well, because lots of people are happy that City are out. How can they use a still image to overrule the linesman if you can't see the ball in the frame? Because there are millions of people watching at home who don't really care much or don't even know the game properly. And the commentators haven't got the nuts to pull the cord on the gravy train. It's just a couple of hours of TV with advertising slots to sell. UEFA want lots of TV viewers so they can get more from advertising and the spectators in the ground are just a minority concern.
The game in Gelsenkirchen was a sinister development that was ignored by journalists. The VAR didn't work but we only found that out when they decided to use it to check the award of a corner. After a long delay, they awarded a penalty for what was clearly not deliberate handball. How come the equipment stopped working at that particular moment? What a coincidence. And if it had stopped earlier, why was this not communicated to the referee and the spectators? Why not make it public? Then the home team got another VAR awarded penalty. The problem was fixed at 2-0 to the home team IIRC.
The sinister bit is that Schalke and the Champions League are both sponsored by Gazprom. The EU gets about 25% of its gas from Gazprom and Germany gets more than a third of its domestic supply from them.
Arguing the toss about isolated incidents is pointless. The implementation of the scam, I mean scheme, is the problem. You can't have unseen men intervening in secret when they see fit. If the ref wants it OK. Better still if a team wants it OK. Let's stop the game and let the men in the room have a full look at it. Everybody knows what's going on, nobody jumps up and down hugging strangers only to be left feeling foolish and cheated.
