The goalkeeper of the Brazilian national team, Alisson, won a new friend during the World Cup Qualifiers match, this Thursday (27), in Quito.
A friend not within the national team, nor the opposing team. A fan, whether Brazilian or Ecuadorian? Neither.
So… anyone from the referee left? Exactly.
Only that someone wasn’t on the field. It was not the referee, the Colombian Wilmar Roldán, nor his compatriots Alexander Guzmán and Jhon León, the linesmen of the match.
The new friend of Brazil’s number 1 was watching the match from a room, with big screens in front of him.
The Uruguayan Leodán González was the VAR (video assistant referee) of the duel at the Rodrigo Paz Delgado stadium, nicknamed Casa Branca.
There is no news that Alisson met González sometime before the game in the Ecuadorian capital. And there is no news that he has, after finishing the game, seen the Uruguayan.
Well, it should. Not just seen as giving a hug, a handshake, saying a “kill it!”, or, in a moderate option, a simple “thank you very much”.
This was in order to establish that new friendship, impossible not to be desired on Alisson’s part, even if it weren’t on the part of González, who would nevertheless find the goalkeeper’s desire to be coherent.
After all, it was thanks to VAR that Alisson escaped being sent off.
Not once, but twice, in the game that ended 1-1 – an indifferent result for Brazil, already qualified for the Cup, but very important for Ecuador’s ambitions to go to Qatar at the end of the year.
It must have been the first time that “video refereeing” saved a player twice in the same match, preventing him from going “to the shower” early.
Alisson received the first red card from Roldán shortly after the middle of the first half, when he left the area to try to cut a rival attack and hit Enner Valencia in the head, with a flying ball (clumsy, pointless and unnecessary).
Roldán was invited by VAR (González) to review the bid. Lance reviewed, chose to backtrack. He canceled the red, considering it exaggerated, and showed the goalkeeper the yellow card.
In the second half stoppage time, Roldán once again showed the scarlet card to Alisson, who, when trying to punch the ball in the penalty area, in an aerial play with Preciado, punched the opponent in the head.
Penalty, and the Brazilian excluded… if it weren’t for his friend VAR (González), who again recommended the Colombian referee to take a look at the play on TV.
Roldán saw, who knows what he saw again (it seemed clear to me that Alisson had hit the Ecuadorian), backed off once more and undid his decision. No penalty and, consequently, no card.
Summary: two reds, two reassessments caused by the intervention of VAR (González), and Alisson ended the match on the field, only yellowed.
And, of course, very pleased with his new friend.
“It is worth mentioning the use of VAR in football. If it didn’t have VAR, we would be unfairly penalized for situations that happened on the pitch,” he said in the post-match interview.
Alisson continued, “nudging” Roldán for the initial decisions and praising his friend personified in González: “I think it’s up to the referee to talk about refereeing decisions. Then, with the use of VAR, I believe they were the right decisions.”
correct? Coming from a friend, yes, no doubt. And what a friend. A friend this VAR.
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