Match 3: CAN : BIH - TELLO (ARG)

Punch without full follow-through? Push the ball away with an open hand? Get there sooner?

I don't know, this is the thing, right? There are some plays in our game where the old answer was always "well I don't know what else he was supposed to do, he has a right to go for the ball." The new paradigm is supposed to be that if you can't go for the ball safely, perhaps you don't have a right to go for it.

 

Which, if true, means he never really signaled that well on-field, right?

I'm not going to say I hate the SAOT/tech stuff, because getting the right decision is important. But referees need to communicate things and do it demonstratively. If they don't, what else are they there for? Tello just never looked like he was on top of that situation and the reason is probably because he wasn't. I don't think he had any idea what he was going to do if it was onside.

 

You're right. Maybe it all got visually confirmed while the broadcast was at replay. I still stand by my criticism of Tello's iniital approach to the scene.

 

And then a Canadian sub pops up from the bench to facilitate a quick throw for his team and is admonished by Tello, which of course also slows down the game (I'm pointing out the irony; Tello was absolutely correct to do this).

 

They just confirmed the 49' offside at 59'. Top notch stuff.

So, there might have been a world where VAR had penalty if not for the offside. I think we know Tello didn't have it, but I guess you never know. This is now one of those situations where we haev no idea what anyone was going to call on a massive play because we have a temporarily uncalled offside right before it.

 

63' against Canada... it's a fine line to call that careless but not reckless. I do really feel like Tello is working hard to avoid what he might feel are "unnecessary" cards against Canada.

 

I don't think there's any world where alleged misconduct gets punished there if the restart is going to be offside. It would have to be deliberate violent conduct for anyone to intervene. I'm sure of that. The lack of a yellow means nothing other than not wanting to confuse or complicate things.

 

Don't want to pile on, but 68' could, theoretically, also be a card against Bosnia #5. Probably doesn't need to be, but I'm just not sold on what Tello is doing overall. I think it's part of a clear strategy to not be a stringent disciplinarian and not help raise the temperature on a match that will inherently have a high one, but I am not at all convinced it's getting the results that set him up for success in the next 25-30 minutes. In fact, I'd bet against it.

 

That goal should help a lot, barring a very controversial KMI decision.

 

I think it just shows one for Canada. It’s shaded. Not great.

 

Yeah no idea how you effectively get +3 with all those subs and the injury stoppage. And at least one punished example of timewasting. It’s night and day from 2022. We are just pretending that didn’t happen and that the hydration break doesn’t really last 3 minutes, I guess