Easy answer. Argentina. It’s not like keepers don’t know by now that the new reality is you can’t go early.
Opinions 1) VAR has utility in catching clearly wrong decisions. 2) VAR should NOT be used to change plays at the tiniest of margins. For example, a toe or finger beyond the defender negating a goal for offside. Or, a penalty kick save denied because the keeper's foot was mere inches off the line. This nitpicking is sucking joy out of the beautiful game. Facts 1) It was a foul which led to Argentina's penalty. It was a rash challenge the defender should not have made. She took out the Argentine's legs. 2) Alexander's save should have stood. Look at these screen caps (below) of the moment Bonsegundo shot the ball. Alexander is clearly on the line, or infinitesimally off the line. Making calls on this close of a razor's edge is pure lunacy. 3) Not nearly enough stoppage time was added. The VAR penalty check began about 86:00 on the clock. The decision, to award the penalty, took NEARLY 4 MINUTES to make, until just before 90:00. First penalty taken at 91:21. VAR decision to retake penalty came at 92:14. Second penalty taken at 93:15. By the time play has resumed it's about 93:45. So, 7 minutes 45 seconds should be added on for this (farcical) incident alone. Add the other 4 second half goals (1 minute each), and 5 substitutions (30 seconds each). It should be about ~14 minutes of stoppage time total. You can subtract the game time from 86:00-90:00 I suppose. That still makes 10 minutes to be added on. The referee called the game at 95:05. Both teams robbed of about 8 minutes (since less than 2 minutes stoppage actually played) to find a winner. FIFA must answer for this. Well... BigSoccer won't let me upload the screen shots. But go back and look for yourself.
Yes it was. I didn't think Argentina had the mentality to keep fighting till the end. I was certainly wrong. LOL!
Argentina just proves that you should never give up....This loss will haunt Scotland for a long time...
Sure but goal differential mattered. They weren't guaranteed in with a 3-goal victory. Even less so with a 2-goal one.
One of the game restart was made with 3 Argentina player in the Scottish half of the pitch... unbeliveable. Scotland not shutting down the shop was mad.
Crazy result. Will have to go back to watch. Having two games running at the same time sucks. Would have liked to have watched each without one game spoiling the other. I know people are frustrated with the VAR calls...but they’re the right call, we’re just not used to them. They’ve also been “robbing” us of heroic moments. I think saying it’s ruining the tournament is probably a little much.
FIFA official highlights of the game: You have to feel a lot of sympathy for the announcer when you hear him say: "Scotland are surely heading to the knock-out phase", with even a big emphasis on "surely". Because we all know that we would have said the same at his place (and that we were writing the same here).
Especially in the first 2 games, Argentina has parked the bus. No one in the right mind would predict they would score 3 goals. Today’s games: Cameroon, Chile, Thailand and New Zealand got 0 points... It’s totally possible that with 2 points, Argentina will be the 4th third place team to advance.
Goal difference matters, but had the game ended 3-0, Scotland would have been in a better position to advance. It's highly unlikely that any of the remaining teams in contention for those last 2 3rd place spots are going to win by a large enough margin to overtake Scotland. You would need a 4 goal win from Cameroon or a 5 goal win from New Zealand AND a 7 goal win from Chile (or Thailand to pull off a miracle) to knock Scotland out. We've seen crazy things happen in this WC, but those things happening is just a little too unrealistic. Scotland was almost 100% through if they had just held on to that 3-0 lead. Even if Argentina gets one back, they're still in decent position. But now all Scotland has is a plane ticket home.
Watched the longer highlights for this match...oh, the crowd rose to occasion with the Argentina 2nd goal and penalty decision. Great stuff.