New Zealand U20 Junior All Whites team console each other following loss on penalties. Photo / Photosport
New Zealand U20 Junior All Whites team console each other following loss on penalties. Photo / Photosport
COMMENT:
There's something a little bit sour in the way the Junior All Whites were eliminated from the Fifa Under-20 World Cup.
It feels like New Zealand were wronged, and football fans in this country will be feeling a bit sick.
From some quarters there will be the inevitable reaction"that's sport" or "that's what happens in football", but actually it doesn't. It never has before.
The penalty shootout, which is already a lottery, turned on the unprecedented intervention of the VAR assistant referee, who was implementing a new Fifa rule change around penalty kicks.
That tweak to the laws, which mandates that goal keepers must have at least one foot touching the goal line when the kick is taken, officially came into force on June 1, part of a series of amendments for the upcoming season.
That's just a couple of days before New Zealand's second round match, although teams were briefed before the Under-20 tournament.
To recap briefly on the shootout, after 120 minutes of a splendid, open contest on Monday morning.
New Zealand goalkeeper Michael Woud appeared in the zone, saving the first two Colombian attempts. Sarpreet Singh buried his kick, while skipper Joe Bell's weak effort was saved by the South American stopper.
But at 1-2 it was advantage New Zealand, and close to checkmate when Woud produced a superb reaction stop to knock Colombia's third penalty attempt up and over the bar.
The referee and the assistant referee saw nothing wrong and at that stage it was game over.
Few, if any teams at elite level, have come back in a penalty contest after failing with their first three attempts.
Colombia's subsequent takers would have been in sudden death, with New Zealand holding all the aces.
But it wasn't to be. The intervention of Spanish video assistant referee Alejandro Jose Hernandez Hernandez persuaded match referee Ahmed Al Kaf (Oman) to order a retake, as Woud had apparently moved early.
Referee Ahmed Al Kaf discusses the controversial call with New Zealand goalkeeper Michael Woud. Photo / AP
Really?
On watching multiple replays many times, it is impossible to discern Woud's foot leaving the line prematurely.
It certainly wasn't picked up by the assistant referee, who was standing only a few metres away on the byline. If he can't, who can?
Apparently Senor Hernandez Hernandez, presumably with the benefit of enhanced technology in the VAR bunker.
To compound matters, Woud, also received a yellow card for his "offence".
He was now handicapped, knowing that one more alleged tiny misstep and he would be sent off.
The bizarre decision played havoc with his focus and rhythm, and he didn't come close again to saving another kick.
It was a scenario wrong on so many levels.
The amended rule was designed to stop keepers crabbing forward to narrow the angle — a la Liverpool's Jerzy Dudek in the famous 2005 Champions League final shootout, as well other examples, most recently at last year's World Cup in Russia.
It was never meant to be so microscopic in it's prescription.
Secondly, goalkeepers already have the odds stacked royally against them in the contest from 12 yards, especially as kickers are allowed to stutter in their run-up.
Thirdly, VAR is meant to fix mistakes, or spot oversights, but this was neither. The technology boffins made the decision, rather than the man in the middle.
To rub more salt in the wound, Colombian keeper Kevin Mier appeared to go early on at least two New Zealand attempts, and especially with his match-winning save of Matt Conroy's attempt, but that wasn't picked up by Hernandez Hernandez or Al Kaf.
Injustice, misfortune and downright bad luck is part of sport, especially football, but in this case it didn't have to be.
