https://streamable.com/hzjng Nope, not a penalty. Just look at the trajectory of the ball. It's moving in the direction the Dutch player moves her foot to kick it. The Swedish player is moving her foot in the opposite direction, so clearly with the intent to either block the Dutch player from reaching the ball or to simulate a foul. In fact the Swedish player herself is moving in the opposite direction of the ball. Excellent call of the VAR. I read that on the Swedish tv the pundits also called it a non penalty.
Are you talking about the Swedish player's left foot? To me, it looks in the second close-up angle at 9 seconds like the ball moves in response to her foot before the Dutch player trips her. She literally played the ball with that foot, or if she didn't she came within an inch of it. I don't understand how you can look at this play neutrally and say that the Swedish player had no intent to play the ball. I think you'll find that highly skilled attackers routinely move in slightly different directions from where the ball is rolling. Soccer pundits (assuming that what you read is accurate and not a slight mistranslation of "this was not called as a penalty") are known the world over for their excellent foul-recognition skills.
There's you're problem, he's not anywhere near neutral. He's wrong though (mostly, at least). I'm not sure what they said directly when it happened but upon replay they all said it should have been a penalty and the resident LotG expert (Jonas Eriksson) said that he was surprised that VAR didn't send it down for review as he thought it was a miss by the referee (not sure how up to date he is on VAR protocols though).
The ball is within playing distance of the Swedish player. In fact, she’s in possession of the ball. She has every right to shield the ball by putting her foot between the ball and the tackling opponent. The “blocking” of the tackler is what every good attacker in the world does there, with the precise hope of drawing the foul. This has been happening since the dawn of the sport. I’d ask if you’re new to the game, but it’s pretty clear you’re just being a partisan hack about this. It’s too bad, because you’re losing credibility for when you comment on incidents where you’re a neutral. And again, this can still be a proper decision by the VAR to not make a recommendation (the VAR doesn’t make “decisions,” unless you’re saying it was a decision not to make a recommendation). But arguing this isn’t a foul and a credible penalty claim is ridiculous.
Anyone watch US-Jamaica last night? How can the Jamaica goalkeeper wear primarily yellow when that is what the field players are wearing? Has that rule changed too? LOL.
Pustovoitova gets the 3/4 playoff. Jacewicz is 4O and Zwayer is VAR. This is reminiscent of the situation with Archundia at WC 2010. He was saved throughout the knockout stage, presumably for the Final, and ended up getting the 3/4 playoff. Not sure it was such a good idea, both then and now.
I think it’s Irrati either way. FIFA doesn’t seem to care about nationality much. Remember Vigliano didn’t get paired with Pitana.
United States : Netherlands - FRAPPART (FRA) Umpierrez is FO. Cerro Grande is VAR. Could be a statement on Irrati in the semifinal. By the way, Nesbitt is AVAR2 on the 3/4 playoff.
Can’t say it’s too surprising. Is Umpierrez the first referee (male or female) to be involved in two WC Finals? She was also 4O last time. Could be a statement on Irrati in the SF, or could be the sentiment that putting him on two WC Finals in consecutive years would be too much (or a combination of both).
Wasn't anyone else guessing that they would honor the host country by using their referee in the Final?! Frappart's not my absolute favorite but she should do well with these two teams. With one small caveat - the US plays the more physical and aggressive game. Not dirty by nature but rambunctious and sometimes adrenaline gets the better of them. If the big yellow card moment (or even....) comes early in the match, is Frappart a referee who will reach for the cards then? From a game management standpoint, I respect the US and Netherlands as two teams that a referee wouldn't have to worry too much about escalation. If a referee went yellow instead of red, the team that suffered the foul might be unhappy but wouldn't be bent on retaliation and the team that committed the foul wouldn't see it as a license to repeat or escalate. They are, to me, the opposite of cynical teams in that regard and why they are worthy of great respect. Most of the best women's teams, thankfully, are like that and it's one of the things which still makes the women's game so refreshing.
https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/2019-wwc-final-match-predictions.2104634/#post-37908492 It’s always a possibility in these tournaments. At the WC level, though, the stars have to align. Very few host countries have had referees capable and deserving and available—ever really. On the women’s side the American referees would have been good in 99 or 03, but they had other problems. It’s been the same problem on the men’s side for awhile: in any tournament where the referee might be good enough to be considered for the final, their team has made the semis or further. 1982 seems like the only thing close to a possible exception, but looking back on respective pedigrees at the time, the Spanish referee didn’t appear to be in the same realm as his colleagues.
In a tournament where we have been wrong so many times, how fitting it is that we were all wrong one last time
In 2011, the Final between Japan and USA was refereed by Bibiana Steinhaus, whose country Germany was eliminated by Japan in the quarterfinal. Steinhaus did an excellent job.
None from my end. She's an excellent referee and very deserving of the final. I thought Umpierrez would have the whistle with Frappart as the fourth, but either combination would be very deserving. From a political side, there was a balance of a deserving referee from the host country vs. a deserving referee from South America. I personally thought FIFA would side with Umpierrez since at least the last two finals referees were from Europe, but I was wrong.