This was weird. I first thought it was simulation, dismissed it, then saw the replay and thought it was penalty. But Iheanacho got up, didn't seem to ask for anything, and kept going. Nobody cried wolf. Not even the Reddit matchthread has more than 2 people saying "definite pen". In that moment do you just shrug and say "Welp, what does the game expect?" And you know me, I have no problem calling something controversial if it's right.
Yeah, but that's not the sort of penalty we usually see given. So my critique is more aimed at the VAR and asking why a two-armed hold followed by a kick to the head isn't clearly a penalty on video. But, that's more of an aerial challenge and VARs have been consistent about sending absolutely zero of those down.
Really? He grabbed him by both shoulders so he couldn't jump. Then he kicked him in the head on his follow-through. @Geko has this right. This is usually not a penalty under the "what does the game expect?" mantra. My only problem is that in an age where a lot of unexpected penalties can now be given, how do you distinguish this one from the others?
The Argentine defender didn't kick the Nigerian's head , the other way around , after he cleared the ball the Nigerian player tried to head it and ended up hitting the player foot instead , no way in hell that's a penalty
Didn't see the arms, just the rake of the face in the follow through. Although I believe current FIFA interpretation is that holding is okay so long as you aren't using Stickum
The sad thing is this is one of the softest of the holding penalty claims in this tournament. It's correct, but there are probably 4-5 worse than this.
But honestly the Iheanacho situation was much more of a penalty I guess its a situation of 'enough is enough'.
Ugh. I want to support that call. I really do. But when almost no one calls that for 38 matches and then Cakir spots a somewhat marginal version of it... I really don't know. If that had been called since day one, I've got no problem with it. But we've probably had 40+ instances of referees threatening to call it. Only Ricci made this call and it was blatant in that case. This one is harder to justify when you look at the tournament as a whole. Penalty incidents like this do not occur in a vacuum at a World Cup.
Cakir has the stones to call it. It says a lot more about the other officials than it does about Cakir. He was the perfect choice for this game.
I thought that. I like that, when there's a clear cut penalty, Dr. Joe begrudgingly says "By the letter of the lawww" it's a penalty. Why the delineation? Other penalties were missed, and this was a clear as day penalty. Great call. Is it so hard for announcers to say "Great call! Good job referee buddy! Doing your job well"?
I was just going to write to say I’m getting a little tired of the referees stopping the corner to lecture the players.....and I guess they didn’t pay attention.