Lots of Penalties for defender clearances in this WC
by spade (2019-06-13 12:03:24)
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Something that's been challenging is the number of penalties given in the WWC. I believe this is the first time that VAR (in it's current form) has been used in a World Cup and the number of penalties is rising, likely from what looks innocuous in real-time is judged reckless in slo-mo.

A couple calls have been for handballs which were warranted (the Van Wyk in the RSA game) but the second in that game was a crucial clearance of a ball that ended with a kick to a Spain player as the RSA player was falling to the ground. Also in the Norway vs France game another occured when a defender cleared the ball, but went over the top of it and cleated a French player in the box.

I disagree with the commentators, I DO see the Norway challenge as a penalty because she poorly cleared the ball and went over the top into the French leg, but the RSA-Spain as a good, clean clearance that the Spanish woman just walked right into; no penalty. Most tellingly, in neither instances, did a single Spanish or French teammate call for a penalty. I don't think the players want these as penalties.

Link is of clips of the Norway challenge at 1:08. In same video the RSA challenge at 4:25.

Better views from the RSA-Spain is at 1:20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8BpELDLNrM&feature=onebox





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