The fifth round of the FA Cup match featuring Bournemouth against Wolverhampton Wanderers witnessed arguably the longest VAR check in history. The game was delayed for over eight minutes to allow the officials to countercheck what was supposed to be Bournemouth’s second goal of the contest. Play was paused for over eight minutes as VAR checked for a possible offside against Bournemouth on March 1. The Cherries had gone in front after 30 minutes with Brazilian striker Evanilson scoring his first goal after returning from injury. Five minutes later, Andoni Iraola’s side thought they had doubled their lead, but the lengthy VAR check eventually penalised Milos Kerkez for being offside before Dean Huijsen bundled it over the line from a David Brooks corner.
The goal was given on-field by referee Sam Barrot, but as it is the norm in games with VAR assistance, was submitted for review. Why VAR call took eight minutes in Bournemouth vs Wolves VAR official Timothy Wood and his assistant Darren England first checked the marginal calls of handball on Kerkez and Huijsen but cleared both of them. The next bone of contention was where both players were as the ball came in. It was the first time the semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) was being used in English football as the trials continue before full implementation. How semi-automated offside technology is supposed to work The idea of introducing SAOT was to make the offside decisions quicker, but the Premier League had warned the process could become complicated if there were many players in the box at the same time.
“The SAOT system is designed to significantly decrease delays caused by the manual process currently used by VAR to determine offsides by “drawing lines” with crosshairs. The length of certain VAR checks may also remain where decisions need to consider multiple offside checks or other offences such as fouls or handballs in the attacking possession phase.” Dean Huijsen scores a goal against Wolves that was later disallowed for offside. Photo by Ryan Pierse. Source: Getty Images The crowded goalmouth at the Vitality Stadium saw the VAR ditch the SAOT and resort to the initial manual processes. The officials even called the players and the coaches for a mid-match meeting to explain the delay. The goal was eventually disallowed.
Andoni Iraola: Something is not working well Iraola was of course not impressed with the amount of time used to arrive at the decision. “They told us they were going to implement it in the first or the second international breaks this season. Definitely something has not been working well because they’ve decided to put it almost at the end of the season,” he said as quoted by the Athletic. “And today, they checked the handball first and they said quickly that it was not a handball, so they were checking the offside. He told us the semi-automatic offside was not working so they have to do the process manually. It has taken a lengthy, lengthy, lengthy drawing”
Matheus Cunha scored in the second half to force the game into stoppage time. The Brazilian was sent off for lashing out and headbutting Kerkez. Matt Doherty and Boubacar Traore missed decisive penalties with Luis Sinisterra scoring the final penalty as Bournemouth qualified for the quarter-finals. FA Cup quarter-final draw Iraola’s side have been drawn against Premier League champions Manchester City at home in the next round. Pep Guardiola’s side are now the overwhelming favourites to win the competition after all the ‘big clubs’ exited the competition. Bournemouth vs Manchester City Brighton vs Nottingham Forest or Ipswich Preston vs Aston Villa Fulham vs Crystal Palace Joshua Zirkzee inconsolable after penalty miss TUKO.co.ke has also reported that Joshua Zirkzee was inconsolable after missing a penalty against Fulham in the Emirates FA Cup. The Dutchman failed to score the last penalty for his side after Bernd Leno guessed correctly to win the game for Fulham. The game had reached the post-match penalties after Bruno Fernandes cancelled out Calvin Bassey’s first-half goal.
by Martin Moses
