by Tonteg Bluebird » Sun Jun 17, 2018 7:14 pm
I think the standard of officiating has been average at best. The referee in the Peru v Denmark game missed an obvious penalty for Peru but fortunately, VAR saved him on that occasion.
I thought the referee in the Germany v Mexico game missed a clear penalty on Hernandez, where he was through on goal and the German defender put his arm on his shoulder and strangled him to the ground.
Mitrovic should have had a penalty when through on goal as well and Argentina's Cristian Pavon got his back leg taken away when he had beaten the full back inside the penalty area, which should have been another obvious penalty.
Overall, I think the standard of refereeing has only been average at best because VAR has saved some glaring errors being made. The standard would have been shockingly bad so far without VAR saving them. I've noticed 2 black referees really struggling getting several decisions wrong, I assume these are African refs and they're struggling to make the step up from the pace of the African games to the pace of the World Cup.
My main concern is the officials failure to even look at VAR for crucial game changing moments. That isn't the officials fault, the VAR team should be looking at their screens to flag a clear penalty. I think several clear penalties have been missed already with VAR not being looked at. Personally, I would happily allow the game to run an extra 10 minutes longer if it means VAR is used for the correct decisions to be made, as this would mean every game would be fair.