World Cup 2018: Controversial VAR decision certain to leave sour taste among Socceroos for some time
SOCCEROOS anger will burn for a long time after finishing on the wrong end of the first big VAR decision in World Cup history, with culprit Josh Risdon calling it ‘pretty gut-wrenching’.
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SOCCEROOS anger will burn for a long time after finishing on the wrong end of the first big VAR decision in World Cup history.
Referee Andres Cunha waved play on after a duel between Josh Risdon and Antoine Griezmann before he was alerted a VAR alert prompted him to award a penalty.
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Risdon clipped Griezmann but was adamant he made contact with the ball first, with TV replays supporting his argument, casting doubt over the VAR which officials claimed was only there to overturn “clangers”.
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“I felt I definitely got the first touch on the ball. I was confident in that. It might have been a little touch, but I definitely did clip it. Then he (Griezmann) obviously caught my trailing leg,’’ Risdon said.
“I was confident it would not get overturned, but that was the case and just move forward. I tried to put that aside and finish off the game.
“My understanding is that if it’s a clear cut wrong decision then it can get overturned but I felt like I definitely got the ball so I don’t think it was clear cut wrong. It’s a grey area, but can’t do much about it.
“It is (shattering), it’s not the best feeling to give away a pen. It was pretty gut wrenching.’’
Goalkeeper Mat Ryan was closest to the incident, collecting the ball as Griezmann collapsed.
“Difficult to digest. I feel hard done by, I don’t feel like we were beaten by a better team, almost by technology,’’ Ryan said.
“I thought I saw a little deviation, meaning he touched the ball and it was play on and the ref took the right decision. We played on then he made the decision to go to check it, I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be (called).
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“From the replays I’ve seen it did not look conclusive. What’s a cleat cut error or what’s not?
It’s grey. I’m looking for a better explanation of it, but I don’t want to take anything away from the beautiful game that it is and what we’ve done.
“We gave it everything and it’s hard to digest that we didn’t take anything from it.
“I’m not here to make excuses, but there’s a lot of grey area in (VAR). But can’t be more prouder of our effort.”
Defender Mark Milligan was the second closest player to Risdon when the incident occurred.
“Disappointing because he was very confident in his reaction that it wasn’t a pen so I thought that the evidence has to be extremely overwhelming for him to change his mind,’’ Milligan said.
“That was a definite touch because I heard it. Whether that was enough to say pen or no pen, I’m not sure.
“I don’t what the referee was looking at. Once he runs over to the sidelines in the box, then he’s going to give a pen. But that’s part of the game now.”
Originally published as World Cup 2018: Controversial VAR decision certain to leave sour taste among Socceroos for some time