Yea, I don't like these PK calls. The Norwegian player played the ball and accidentally kicked the French player who was coming in on the ball. It looked rather bad in slow-motion because she didn't get all the ball, but I don't think you should lose a game because of an accidental kick--and we've now seen it happen twice. As for the game, Norway was well organized and physical, and their physical play was effective at times. That said, France controlled play for longish spells and put far more pressure on the Norway goal than vice versa. Norway had to defend a lot, and they did a pretty good job of it.
Regardless, she kicked the player coming in - saying she isn't responsible for striking the other player like that because she got the ball first is not right under the Laws of the Game. Similar, a player making a reckless tackle, but getting the ball first, can still be called for a foul.
He pointed a finger at her and was seriously mad about her decision apparently although he claimed in an interview later that he didn't see what happened during the pen situation lol
I'm a bit undecided about this one because Syrstad Engen got so little of the ball, and the ball was far closer to Torrent than it was to Spanish player, which makes a clearing action in Syrstad Engen's case more questionable. However, they are the same situation in principle. (I was left wondering why the US-Thailand ref never went to the screen for either Mewis' or Horan's shout after watching Steinhaus go to the screen. Hoping it was just because it was US-Thailand and not because she was being unreasonably set in her opinion.)
But this wasn’t reckless or even careless. Your foot has to go somewhere and when a player dramatically changes their position with a two-footed jump directly into the path of your follow through, what can you do? Did you listen postgame to Ariana? She was spot on
me too! got the feeling they didn't even want that penalty, So thank U Steinhaus for making them take that it!(and ESL for having too much pride not to miss it) lol
I don't know if I entirely agree with you on the call, but Torrent's lunge would have looked bad if she caught someone. Edit: Okay, I've just seen the play again above. My memory was off. The ball is clearly already out of Torrent's control before she gets hit and goes down, she was further from the ball than I remembered, and Torrent had the far worse looking challenge out of the two. Syrstad Engen needed to get more of the ball, but no way she could have pulled out with Torrent coming in like that. Did the VAR clip go back far enough to show the full extent of Torrent's two footed challenge? No penalty in my opinion as well at the moment. Edit: Another viewing. It's poor contact from Syrstad Engen, but she cleanly gets the ball first. I originally thought she cleared the ball right off/close to Torrent's foot. Not the case. Syrstad Engen gets the clearance off; Torrent just blocks the ball and was never in control. Either I was just not focused earlier, or the VAR clip used did not show the full picture. (Most likely the first, but Steinhaus doesn't have that excuse as a very experienced ref.)
She isn't responsible in this case because it was a natural follow through, and she couldn't pull out because of how Torrent came in. Take another look at the play, and determine who had the reckless, two footed lunge on the ball. Yeah, not Syrstad Engen. It was Torrent.
I saw that, and it is very, very close. It is difficult to tell whose foot really touched the ball first. In a case like this, though, I think the err should be toward the attacking team (France).
Syrstad Engen got there first and clearly kicks the ball off of Torrent's foot. However, let's assume that it was very close. I'm not going to err towards the attacking team when the attacking team's player only got to the vicinity of the ball thanks to a wild two footed jump and the defending team's player was just going through a standard clearance motion.
Okay, I’ve confused “err” with benefit of the doubt. Still don’t think it’s really that close, but you can ignore my comment above. Apologies.
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