Content overview: On November 22, in the first match of Group C of the World Cup, Saudi Arabia overtook Argentina 2:1. Today we will take stock of the technology and hard work behind Argentina scoring 4 goals and 1 point.
Keywords: World Cup VAR semi-automatic offside technology
Saudi Arabia made an upset counterattack and overtook Argentina 2:1
The first big upset of the 2022 World Cup has appeared! Under the premise of falling behind by 0:1 in the start, Saudi Arabia opened fire in the second half, kicked more and more smoothly, scored two goals in a row, and finally overtook Argentina with a score of 2:1, becoming a veritable "Light of Asian Football"!
In fact, less than 10 minutes into the first half, the famous Argentine Messi scored with a penalty kick. This fantastic start directly ignited the atmosphere of the audience.
Interestingly , Messi's penalty kick was also made by the referee after checking VAR
Then Argentina pursued the victory and scored 3 goals in the first half. Unfortunately, after checking the VAR, the referee gave an "offside" judgment. In the end, the Argentine team scored 3 goals but scored 3 points in a row. It was properly staged . An offside science education film.
So what is the sacredness of the VAR that the referee checked many times and blew off Argentina's 3 scores?
VAR team: 7 people, 42 cameras
The full name of VAR is Video Assistant Referee, which means video assistant referee. Its function is to conduct a second review or reminder of the referee's judgment on the field through the instant playback and communication system in football matches.
Argentine player Lautaro Martinez scored in the 27th minute of the game
Then VAR judged that his shoulder was in front of the last defender and it was offside, and the score was cancelled.
The VAR team provides decision support and advice to the referees on the field for the following four situations:
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with or without goals
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Penalty kicks and fouls leading to them
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direct red card
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sent off the wrong player
Throughout the game, the video assistant referee is constantly checking for obvious errors related to these four situations. The VAR team's communication with the on-field referee is limited to incidents of obvious errors or serious omissions.
In terms of personnel composition, the VAR team includes 1 video assistant referee (VAR) and 3 assistant video assistant referees (AVAR 1-3). All VAR team members are senior officials of the FIFA Video Match.
In addition, there are 3 replay operators responsible for selecting and providing the best camera angles.
Schematic diagram of VAR team composition The green clothes are the video assistant referees, and the black clothes are the operators
The VAR team has access to 42 cameras, 8 in super slow motion and 4 in ultra slow motion. Slow-motion replays are mainly used for factual judgments, such as determining the contact point of a physical collision or the location of a foul. Normal speed replay is used for subjective judgment, such as determining the degree of foul and whether there is handball.
In addition to the cameras, VAR teams also have access to camera feeds used in semi-automatic offside techniques.
VAR Invincible Buf: Semi-automatic offside technique
Semi-automated offside technology (semi-automated offside technology) is more like the magic blessing of the VAR system. It enables referees and related staff on the field to judge whether a player is offside more accurately and quickly.
The semi-automatic offside technology uses 12 dedicated cameras arranged in the field to track the position of the football, and collects 29 data points on each player at a rate of 50 times per second, and calculates the exact position of each player on the field.
29 data points including all areas relevant to offside calls
Al Rihla, the official match ball for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, is also well-versed in its ability to detect offside fouls.
Al Rihla was specially designed and produced by Adidas for this World Cup. An inertial measurement unit (inertial measurement unit) is built in the center of the sphere, which sends data to the video surveillance room 500 times per second, and can accurately detect the kick point of the football.
Designed and produced by Adidas, the high-tech Al Rihla is the Official Match Ball for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar
By combining player body tracking and ball tracking data, and applying artificial intelligence technology, once the ball is received by the offensive team in an offside position, the semi-automatic offside technology will issue an automatic offside alarm to the observers in front of the monitor.
The VAR team manually checks the automatically selected kick point and the automatically generated offside line (generated based on the calculated position of the player's torso), verifies the judgment of the semi-automatic offside technology, and decides whether to inform the referee on the field through the headset.
The referee checks the basis for the offside judgment through the monitor on the sidelines
After the VAR in front of the monitoring screen and the referee on the field confirm the decision of the player to be offside, these exact same position data points will then be generated into a 3D animation, which perfectly reproduces the position of the player's torso at the moment of contact with the ball, and will eliminate the offside situation. Visualize quickly and accurately.
That is the schematic diagram of the Argentine player Lautaro Martinez who was sentenced to offside after scoring a goal and canceled the score we showed earlier.
Fairness norms or penalty inflation?
The implementation of VAR and semi-automatic offside technology has further narrowed the gap between the strong and the weak in the World Cup.
In the view of FIFA President Gianni Infantino, this is an undisputable success (undisputable success). Pierluigi Collina, chairman of the FIFA referee committee, also believes that VAR has greatly reduced the number of major mistakes on the field, and semi-automatic offside technology can provide faster and more accurate penalties.
However, some netizens have a negative attitude towards VAR and semi-automatic offside technology.
They believe that these new technologies have increased the uncertainty of football matches and greatly increased the number of penalties. Taking the 2018 World Cup in Russia as an example, due to the use of VAR, there was "penalty inflation" on the field. Compared with the last World Cup 13 The 2018 Russia World Cup created a record of 29 penalty kicks, and the World Cup became the "Penalty Cup".
What do you think about high-tech applications in football matches? Welcome to vote below!
Reference link:
[1] https://www.fifa.com/technical/football-technology/football-technologies-and-innovations-at-the-fifa-world-cup-2022/video-assistant-referee-var
[2] https://www.fifa.com/technical/media-releases/semi-automated-offside-technology-to-be-used-at-fifa-world-cup-2022-tm
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