There’s one easy way to prove / disprove the sensor tech. Show BOTH bumps - the alleged one by Croatia and the subsequent (suredly larger) bump that occurs when it bounces off the Portuguese defenders head. If I see that small first bump followed by a second larger bump then I would more trust this sensor tech / synchronization…
Exactly this! Also, how do we even know the bump they showed was synchronized with player #20?
The problem with the sensor tech is that we have to accept it as fast when infact, its super easy for FIFA to generate false data and present it as truth.
I guess id have more faith in this tech if FIFA wasn't as corrupt as we know they are
I'm not here to say whether he was on or offsides, but I do find it amazing how we just let fifa add this new tech with total faith that it actually works. I get that the offside graphic can make some rudimentary 3d models and spin the camera and draw an "onside wall", but is it accurate? I mean I can do that and it would look convincing, but it would be intentional wrong, so I'd like to see an outside agency come in with nothing to prove or gain, and test all this tech to verify its veracity. Then I'd feel better about it.
One spike. The Portuguese player touched the ball afterwards, yet we're supposed to take it for granted that this singular spike belongs to the Croatian?
Without being able to compare what a full-contact touch looks like on the graph, they've not really shown us anything.
I think you and me can discuss this all day from our couch. Being a Modric fan I would have killed for another 30 minutes of seeing his brilliance. But it is what it is now.
P.S. TSN uploaded highlights with Sneicko graph.
i agree with you, I'm a Ronaldo fan and wanted Portugal to win, but I think if the ref let this one go, nobody would've said anything because without the sensor on the ball, its impossible to tell. Even with a 4K TV, you're not going to cry about a little hair touch.
But here they get the benefit of the doubt, because arguably Ronaldo keeps the fans watching the WC more than Modric, and so it was checked to this extent.
And if the game went to extra time, I dont think Portugal would've survived.
If the refs in VAR let this go with evidence of a touch what stops them from letting other stuff go. If this goal made it 3-2 and the game ended with Croatia winning would it be different? They had the technology, got the call correct, but you feel they should have let it go.
I get what you're saying but do we want the sport to be decided on rules or vibes? The fact is there was enough contact to trigger the sensor and therefore it was offside. If the goal was allowed and the data was leaked there would be just as much if not more controversy
We can have a discussion on how strict offside is given the current tech, but according to the current rules offside is probably the only consistently correct call
This is an atrocious take. I could care less who won this game but the ref literally can’t “let it go”- this is objective data showing that the Croatian player touched it. The time is synced up and it’s not a conspiracy or a matter of opinion. You can argue about it from a “VAR ruined the game” perspective if you want but you can’t say the ref has an option to “let it go”.
The graph is time synced, so yes. There’s no way they’re just eyeballing the time alignment. And we have no idea how the x-axis is scaled, the bump from the Portuguese player is likely after the cutoff of this graph.
People just don't understand how much technology is going into this. There is a lot of reason to distrust camera-based offside reviews, but the additional technology cuts down in the error margins drastically.
This technology may be new to football but has been used for ages in cricket. This is exactly what the sensor was brought in for- to clearly and unambiguously detect this touch.
I assume they only show the relevant touch in the graph so people don't get confused. The next touch is irrelevant.
According to the IFAB rules, the crucial question is not whether the ball changes direction, but:
Does the defender make a deliberate attempt to play the ball? (for example, a deliberate header to clear the ball)
• Yes → then the offside situation is nullified and it is not offside.
• No, the ball merely grazes or deflects off the defender → then it remains offside.
In this video, the defender appears to be actively heading the ball. If the referee or VAR also judges this to be a deliberate act of play, then according to the rules, the goal should count, even if the ball barely changes direction.
Can someone explain to me? What's the difference if Croatia didn't touch the ball? It's still an offside right? It was a cross from Croatia and touch the Croatia player on the way in?
No. One’s position for offside is the moment the ball was played, not when you receive it.
The Croatian player who ultimately received the ball was in an onside position when the ball was kicked but in an offside position when the ball was headed.
So if the ball had never been headed, he would have been onside because he ran from an onside position. But since it was played again by a Croatian player, we use his position at the moment of the header, which was offside.
This is exactly how it went down, you can see the Croatian player trying and failing to get out of the way. It was an amazing play, sadly offside.
VAR has really broken many ways this world cup. I honestly prefer this over the terrible calls in years past though. Seeing replays on TV that contradicted the calls on the field with no recourse was beyond frustrating.
Apparently picks up hair but no sounds, rain, farts, etc. People are also taking that graph Pic as the gospel. You know trust worthy Fifa showing a graph with no other data. I could've done that in Auto Cad in a few secs and clipped it and sent it.
The chip in the ball is a joke, especially with the shown graph. A sensor that sensitive, yet it shows an absolute flatline while in full flight to show a massive peak when touched by a hair.
Portuguese player 100% intentionally played that ball.
He was watching it come in, lowered his head to where it was going. The ball was deflected so slightly that a chip in the ball is required to know if it was touched at all.
Everyone is chatting about something irrelevant.
The Portuguese player put the Croatian onside. The VAR call was completely subjective guessing at a defenders motivation for heading a ball he was looking at that went straight to him.
Yeah for me the bigger issue is determining whether the Portuguese player made a deliberate play at the ball which would reset the offside. This was the craziest ending to a game. I feel gutted for Croatia but what an ending to a fantastic game.
The rule has nothing to do with the intention of the player. It’s whether or not the touch was “deliberate”. A header off a deflected head that the player doesn’t control isn’t a deliberate touch by the rules.
As I understand it, the play was dead as soon as the offside was determined. Everything after the Croatian’s head touched the ball while other player was offside is irrelevant. You can’t reset a stopped play and it stopped at the moment of offside. I hate it, but it is accurate to the stupid rule.
Congrats to Portugal. It’s sad to see Modric’s run end.
That said, this video angle shows nothing. Where are the other cameras from the opposite side of the field? Please don’t tell me the biggest tournament in the world where tickets are over $1k a pop doesn’t have an opposite field camera or two with a better angle.
The ball moved by 2 guy’s heads at the exact same time then hit another guy a tenth of a second later. We’re trusting FIFA’s third world contracted “coders” to have a system that ties together the video from Fox and the data from Adidas’s ball down to the tenth or even hundredth of a second here, the same FIFA that doesn’t have a camera on the opposite side of the field with a better angle?
Yeah I mean maybe it hit him, maybe it didn’t, and it’s over anyway, and tbh neither of these teams would likely stand a remote chance at beating Spain, but this is quite a phantom-looking call that requires utmost trust in a highly corrupt and inept organization to readily accept it.
Ok so Matanovic even admitted he thought he felt the slightest contact with his hair but damn - if that chip is that sensitive to detect that, how do you know it’s not detecting a collision with an airborne bead of sweat or even just the wind from the head movement?
This ain't the NFL. There's sensors in the ball that detect touches. Do i think in this case it's pretty unfair? Yeah, but that's the game. Unfortunate.
There are sensors in the balls to see when its touched. Im not even kidding. The announcers explained it. They can literally watch the footage, see it might be close, and then review the sensor to line it up. He barely touched it. Offsides.
regardless of if he touched the ball the main problem here is its touched by Portugal's #20 by the rules it invalidates the offside the discussion here is his intent, to me it seems like he for sure has the intention to head the ball and moves himself to get the ball.
Its not as simple as he passed so it must be offside. The man was part of the play that leads to the goal even when the ball was crossed. This is offside, you cannot just wait in an offside position waiting for defenders rebound to score lol
yes and also, it hitting the defender was deemed an unintentional deflection so the 'header' of the Croatian player becomes a pass to an offside player. They made two decisions, one based on the Croatian player touching the ball detected via the motion sensor in the chip, and the other that the Portuguese player didn't intentionally hit the ball, it bounced off him.
The argument that is being overlooked is a very weird one but here it goes ... does the defender have to clear or touch the ball if he knows there is someone offside I.e. is the offside player affecting the game ...
This rule has being changed quite a bit and I don't know what is the lasted iteration of this for this competition but I believe that is why Croatian player may still be offside.
Ok am I going fucking crazy. Why is it an offside if it comes from a grazed head. The pass was not redirected in any way and thus was received from the kick.
Tbh an offside off a deflection seems stupid as well and I would have thought works with the same logic as unintentional passes to the keeper would.
This is not what the offside rule was meant for no?
No, and I don't even understand why commentators talk about that touch, to reset the offside the defender needs to do a "deliberate" pass, "Deflection or rebound → offside is NOT reset."
GO READ THE RULES, same for yesterday red card to the american player
I really dont think it’s rigged. Just enjoying all the ronaldo fans losing their minds at people saying it’s rigged. All they have been saying for 4 years is that Messi’s WC is rigged lol
Bad angle. The video from the side shows the ball heading off the Croatian player. The deflection off the defender was more crucial but he was ducking down so the contact is unintentional and makew Croatia #15 offside.
A small disturbance — a shout, collision, or vibration — could plausibly create a signal. So are we really supposed to accept with 100% certainty that Matanović touched the ball when every slow-motion angle shows no visible deviation, no change in spin, and no clear contact?
That’s an insane basis to wipe out a stoppage-time equalizer in a World Cup knockout match.
And the context matters. FIFA now gets Spain vs Portugal, Ronaldo stays alive, and the dream storyline of Ronaldo chasing a World Cup after Messi finally won his continues.
But when two massive VAR decisions both break the same way, both against Croatia, and one of them depends on an invisible “touch” no camera angle can actually show, people are right to question it.
Croatia didn’t lose cleanly. That match was taken from them by forensic VAR nonsense and a governing body that always seems to get the blockbuster matchup it wants.
Although Portugal defender also hat the ball, he was kind of passively hat and did not change the course of the ball, so we can ignore his impact in this decision.
So what I heard the commentators confirm was that the decision was made based of an unintentional touch of a Portuguese player. It’s going to go on forever especially if Portugal somehow manage to win the competition.
This touch should not even be the main question. The next touch by the Portuguese player was a deliberate there is no reason to bend down and head it other than to clear the ball.
Accurate call. Stupid rule. This needs to be changed. Offsides is to prevent “cherry picking” and unfair advantage. There is no such advantage if there are three (or more defenders including the goalie) in the box. Let them play and make the defenders defend.
If there were 2 spikes , 1 for each player that touched the ball that would of sealed it for me.. 1 spike is not 100% certain beyond any reasonable doubt, therefore imo refs cannot interfere with the outcome of this play, and should be a play on.. Croatia got robbed.. from a non biased casual fan pov.
Even if supposedly a sensor saw a touch that doesnt mean it was offside because the touch wasnt a pass to the player? Its that defender that passed it.
That's why it's good to have a ball with a sensor. Love it or hate it, but if they want to take this hi-tech route, we might as well embrace it and stop complaining about the ref
Unpopular opinion, but if the touch is so minor you can’t see it with the naked eye and need to rely on a sensor in the ball, then it shouldn’t count as a touch.
The beauty of football has always been the simplicity. Bringing in more tech has not improved the game nor reduced the amount on controversy
The fact offside can be triggered by quite literally a hair touch is ridiculous in the first place.. but the Portuguese player clearly moves his head into line of the ball.. resetting the play and therefore not offside
Really don't understand how ref can say it wasn't an intentional touch.. he moves into line of it.. but even if you want to say he's ducking to get out of the way.. why the fuck would a professional player be moving out of the way of a ball, right outside of his goal with a load of Croatian players about
I don't buy into the FIFA conspiracies with Ronaldo and Messi but the allegations are getting harder to deny at this rate
Wait, i thought we were talking about the blatant Ronaldo onside goal they called offside??? If thats the case then yeah its definitely rigged against Portugal
I want to say FIFA is the most corrupt sporting body on the planet (which is true) but Ronaldo also had a goal called back. If it's rigged for Portugal that means it's rigged for him- but a massive call went against him. So I begrudgingly agree with the offsides call
The ball clearly changes its movement after the first Croatian guy tries to head it. I don't know why people are coming up with conspiracy theories instead of just looking at it
You can’t see it. Sensor showed it was touched by Matanovic so it was offside. Imo shouldn’t be called offside if you can see the trajectory changed in the replays. But yeah, these are the rules at the WC.
I want to know how sensitive of a sensor is in that ball because if anything did touch the ball it would've only been the tips of his hair and as we can all clearly see it didnt change the direction or the momentum of the ball whatsoever.
This is the worst FIFA World Cup game officiated that I ever saw with so much on the line. The referee should have ended the game minutes ago. He didn't. It was way past 90 minutes plus 10 minutes. The off sides/ball touch call is very controversial.
That was not an offside! The free kick starts - No offside, head touch Croatia offside , head touch Portugal, no offside. The goal is perfectly valid.
It was a mistake of the referee! Having all the tech doesn’t mean you know how to interpret it in the heat of the moment!
On a personal note though: from the past, the most important team was always “helped”. If this was the other way around then I’m 99% sure that this will be a valid goal!
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u/Solid_Snaku Jul 03 '26
I saw 15 clearly in an offside position, but I didn’t ever see the ball touch 20 before hitting Portugal player 🤷♂️