It’s been an eventful first World Cup for the Video Assistant Referee system, and mostly the good kind of eventful. The system is far from perfect, but it’s gotten most of the calls right. And in Brazil vs. Costa Rica on Friday, it got used for a new reason — to overturn a soft penalty.
VAR took away a penalty that Neymar won with a dive. ALL HAIL VAR.
This is what VAR is for.
Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images
Initially, referee Bjorn Kuipers gave a penalty for a foul by Giancarlo Gonzalez on Neymar. It was a tense moment — Costa Rica was barely clinging to a 0-0 draw deep into the second half. But he went to VAR, which clearly determined that Gonzalez didn’t commit a foul and Neymar went down easy.
In previous World Cups, Costa Rica would have been robbed of their chance at an upset by an unjust penalty. It’s the kind of play that feels like it ruins so many great upset bids. But VAR got this one right. All hail VAR.
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