With enough condescension, it would be reasonable to say that FIFA could only have done one thing about the disrespect for human rights in Qatar: not have brought the World Cup here. So it’s up to the international federation to do its part. It did not in the opening match, where the first video review took two minutes.
It served to annul a real offside position by Ecuadorian striker Michael Estrada. But FIFA’s commitment with the announcement of the semi-automatic impediment was to speed up decisions. The first failed.
On the other hand, the screen at the Al Bayt stadium showed the precise review of Enner Valencia’s second goal, in which the striker takes a slight step back to leave the offside position and heads in a legal condition.
The decision to show, on the screen, possession of the ball divided into three was also withdrawn. At 33 of the first half, spectators present at Al Bayt could see that Ecuador had 56% of ball possession, Qatar 30%, and the rest was up for grabs.
Twelve years ago, two World Cup matches led to the International Board’s decision to adopt the video referee: Lampard’s disallowed goal for England against Germany and Argentina’s Tévez goal against Mexico.
The two controversial moves in the South African Cup took place on the same day, June 27, 2010. They involved the ball that crossed the German line and the Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda did not see it and an impediment by Tévez, two meters ahead, which the Italian judge Roberto Rossetti watched on the big screen — which should not have been shown. Even realizing his own mistake, Rossetti had no right to change his mind by an element outside the match.
The opening of the World Cup in Qatar shows football more integrated with technology, without being infallible.
The Ecuadorian team did not fail, for the first time managed in World Cups by an Argentinian coach, a nationality that led LDU to the 2008 Libertadores title –Edgardo Bauza was the coach– and Barcelona to the runners-up in 1990 and 1998 –Rubén Insúa and Miguel Brindisi .
Gustavo Alfaro won the Copa Sudamericana with Arsenal de Sarandí, from Argentina, in 2007. He changed the Ecuadorian formation, choosing four original attackers, in a 4-4-2 system. Plata was the left-hander open from the right, Romario Ibarra the left winger with right foot. The strong point was striker Enner Valencia, the only one of the 22 starters at the inaugural Cup with previous experience, as he scored three goals in three matches in Brazil eight years ago.
Helped by the dismal performance of Qatari goalkeeper Al Sheeb, Enner became the third top scorer with more than one goal in three straight openings. Neymar had done it in 2014 and Cheryshev in 2018.
All this indicates that it was time to talk about football, at the end of the first week of coverage of a World Cup full of political and humanitarian issues to be dealt with. Which also ends with a stark realization.
If the inauguration of the World Cup in Brazil was booed by the then president Dilma Rousseff, the pronouncements of the warlike Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in 2018, and the dictator emir of Qatar, Al Thani, were applauded.
Something is very out of order in the world, would sing Caetano Veloso if he were in the Al Bayt stadium, in the north of Qatar.
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