The turmoil of the century dealt Liverpool a cruel blow. He does not believe in the appalling explanation – Nauzal

Even the video referee, who is surrounded by monitors with footage from many cameras in the stadium and is therefore supposed to properly advise the referee on the field, is only human. And thus a flawed creature. But the fumble that has now damaged Liverpool cannot be forgiven.

Liverpool already knew from the 26th minute of the game at Tottenham that they would play weakened by the suspended Jones. However, he does not lay down his arms, already in the 34th minute Díaz opens the net. A goal would have put Liverpool 1-0 up in London, but a raised offside flag is the signal for the video referee and his assistant to judge the matter.

“The gentlemen saw that it was not offside, and the goal should have been recognized, but there was a miscommunication during the agreement with the referee. Simon Hooper understood from his colleague’s confusing statement that the goal was not valid. And so he let the game continue after the supposed offside, which was waved off and whistled anyway,” Jaromír Bosák, host of the Nosiči vody podcast, started the topic.

“For Liverpool, the miscommunication was devastating. They were fighting for the chance to get to the top of the table. If they had taken the lead at ten, they could have adapted another strategy within the encounter. But instead, Tottenham scored the first recognized goal of the match. And even though the visitors equalized before halftime, they were then sent off again. Even at nine they gave a heroic performance. And they were dealt an even bigger blow by an unfortunate Matip own goal in the 96th minute,” recapitulated the epic course of the match by Karel Tvaroh, who was watching directly at the stadium as a TV reporter for Canal+ Sport.

And in a new episode of the Water Bearers podcast, he described the post-match atmosphere and reactions of Liverpool players. “Fate gives them one blow after another, they are losing players due to injuries, now Gakpo too. On the field, even without two suspended players, they did their best. But they took nothing home. But, I think, the intense experience will make them stronger and morally stronger,” says Karel Tvaroh.

All the more so because the key moment of the entire match was the injustice of disallowing Díaz’s goal. “The way in which the error in communication between the referees was subsequently described, which significantly damaged Liverpool, is really calling to heaven,” noted football journalist Luděk Mádl.

According to what was communicated after the game, video referee Darren England and his assistant Dan Cook saw that the offside rule was not violated. But then they allegedly told the chief arbitrator in a confusing way. How?

No chaos would probably be allowed by the sentence: “No offside, the goal stands.” But Mr. England was supposed to tell the head referee that he confirmed the original decision, because he mistakenly thought that before the review, the referees on the field saw the goal as legal. But it was the other way around. And that’s why Simon Hooper didn’t recognize the goal due to offside, he let the game continue – and the moment the ball was played, according to the rules, it was no longer possible to revoke this decision.

“I cannot understand at all how such a thing is possible. The guys in the video sometimes examine every super detail. And then they miss that a colleague raised the flag,” Jaromír Bosák said.

For more than 100 years of its history, football has made do with the human factor when deciding matches. The improving quality of television footage then increasingly began to bring evidence of many fundamentally flawed, unjust verdicts. And public pressure pointing out that a number of other sports had already introduced the possibility of reviewing a disputed situation on video footage pushed FIFA to introduce a video referee as well.

At the 2014 World Cup, he was still only guarding the goal line, at the 2018 World Cup, the VAR system was already functioning in full as it is today. And a significant part of important football competitions included it in their regime a long time ago. Including the Premier League of course.

“There will probably always be some kind of mistake or snag. However, what the people operating the VAR system demonstrated during the Tottenham-Liverpool match at the weekend really exceeded everything. One would understand if these gentlemen did it for a week, but when after several years of working with VAR, they are unable to tell each other intelligibly if a goal should be disallowed for offside or not, then that is truly an incredible failure. over which reason remains standing,” Luděk Mádl evaluated the hot English scandal.

The debate also turned to the possible fatigue of video referees England and Cook after their recent “brigade” in the league of the United Arab Emirates. And also to Liverpool’s pressure for a thorough investigation of the whole matter and the publication of the entire audio recording of the communication between the VAR and the referee.

“Until now it was not customary in England to open such debates. They indicate a clear disbelief at what happened at Tottenham on Saturday. Even to how it was explained,” says Luděk Mádl.

The water carriers also devoted themselves in detail to the nomination of national team coach Jaroslav Šilhavý for the match in Albania and the Faroe Islands. Above all, they focused on the Spartan stopper Filip Panák, who is now presenting himself in top form. But the coach was not suitable for the nomination.

The Water Bearers also returned to the Sparta-Plzeň match, praising its level of sportsmanship, but Tomáš Chorý received a large portion of criticism, who once again reduced himself to a tricky game.

Slavia’s coach Jindřich Trpišovský was advised by Nosič vody on how to regroup forces in order to increase the creativity of his selection, this time downright desperate in Teplice.

You will learn all this in the new episode of the Water Bearers podcast. You can listen to it in the player at the beginning of the article.