Then you really don't understand how the system works. No decision was "handed down." The R on the filed makes the decision based on her review of the video on the field. The Video Assistant Referee ("VAR") is a referee who has been assigned to the game and works with or more assistants and a technician to review certain kinds of on field events. Everything that @allan_park said about the R on the field is true about the R in the booth (the VAR)--their progress and assignments depend on the quality of their work. While I think the VAR did make a mistake in sending this down to the filed for the R to review and that the R made a mistake in changing the call to a PK, suggesting it had anything to do with something that happened in 2012 is just plain silly.
Philosophical question: did the Canadian player ever have (or was close enough to say she had) possession of the ball? I'm not suggestion this is necessary for a foul to be suffered, but I do think it goes to the spirit of the law theory of refereeing. Watching the replay again I realize this is not the strongest argument. But since we're going to super-slo-mo every call reviewed by VAR now, I noticed that the Candian player was off the ground when kicked by the American. Again not the strongest argument on it's own, but there is something about this call that just doesn't live up to the consequences of what happened.
Actually I noticed Bibiana Steinhaus-Webb was in the booth for one of the earlier games. According to your argument there were WMD in Iraq because that's how the system works. Oh wait, thinking there wasn't is silly.
When I saw your username and posts, I was sure you were a sock puppet, but figured it was fine for others to give you the benefit of the doubt and explain how VAR works. Now I see you've been on the site 14 years with over 2000 posts. And the only other time you've ventured into the Referee forum was six years ago, to quibble about a play in the 2015 WWC. If this is the level of discourse you want to engage in here, I suggest you return to your regular forums and we'll see you again in 2027 for WWC.
I asked an honest question and got a pedantic response and attitude. This whole experience has been kinda creepy. Thanks will gladly accept my part of that. Cheers.
I was honestly extremely surprised when the referee came back and pointed to the penalty mark to award the penalty. From my perspective having watched in real time and in replay the Canadian attacker initiates contact trying to win the ball with the American defender. For me this should have been a foul and a direct free kick for the United States not a penalty. So I do have a sneaking suspicion that even if no penalty were awarded, the United States women were going to lose this match based upon how inefficient they were in converting chances into goals and just imposing their will on the match.
It was one of those where the referee called the PK when Spain still had a really good scoring opportunity going. But play actually restarted with a Japan DFK for the kick so it didn't matter in the end.
Australia - United States Referee: Laura Fortunato (ARG) Assistant Referee 1: Mariana de Almeida (ARG) Assistant Referee 2: Mary Blanco (COL) Fourth Official: Stephanie Frappart (FRA) Reserve Assistant Referee: Bernadettar Kwimbira (MWI) So maybe not the Brazilian for the final? Or is CONMEBOL getting both medal games?
The Law5 blog reports Pustovoitova for the Gold Medal match http://law5-theref.blogspot.com/2021/08/2020-fifa-womens-olympic-football.html
Gold medal game Referee: Anastasia Pustovoitova (RUS) Assistant Referee 1: Ekaterina Kurochkina (RUS) Assistant Referee 2: Sanja Rodak (CRO) Fourth Official: Salima Mukansanga (RWA) Reserve Assistant Referee: Kyoung Min Kim (KOR)
So our predictions were all wrong. Did Alves Batista and Yamashita not perform well enough in this tournament to deserve a knockout match? Out of the 11 referees, only them and Staubli did not get one of the last eight matches.
Who's the VAR? Better not be Pawel Raczkowski (the one for the USA/Canada match) And so much for the confederation thing...
Hey, she was my ill-informed knee-jerk suggestion before I started listening to all of @code1390 ’s logic and sensible analysis. He threw me off with facts and reason, which seems totally unfair.
Some small human info - Pustovojtova is actually sth of a celebrity in her home country, owing to a very warm and nice hour-long documentary filmed with a famous Russian YouTube star, which can be viewed here (full English subtitles available, not auto-generated). Is actually a very pleasant watch indeed if anyone can spare an hour
I watched this when @MassachusettsRef posted it during WWC 2019. Indeed, very happy for her, especially given that she was kept aside during the knockout stage of that WWC, until ending up with "only" the 3/4 playoff.
Tessema (ETH) is apparently in the middle for the Bronze match. Talk about an assignment that none of us saw coming! Conger is FO. Makes me wonder what could be in store for Gold. But I still think Elfath is favorite.