Jenko Kent

@BigBadP @NCHammer1980 Not the same play. But yes the pushing and shoving 100% goes both ways and it was pretty rough to disallow the goal given Haaland wasn’t even involved in it.

@NCHammer1980 @JenkoKent Anderson is literally trying to wrestle him to the ground. The picture on the right shows Anderson holding Halaands arm and waist.

I know people hate England and can't stand the fact they've won the game and are in the semis, but I'm dumbfounded by the number of people seriously claiming that Haaland's push isn't a foul.

@john102414 @paulnovosad It’s not supposed to be contact via the arms. Shirt tugging and wrestling are all explicitly illegal.

@paulnovosad but it’s a contact sport and it’s part of the game, unsure whether this would be a better sport by eliminating all contact.

Some econ for FIFA: if the probability of getting caught goes to 100%, infractions disappear almost completely. You see it with handballs. Punishment is 100%, and players try really really hard to avoid them. Easy to do this with shirt-pulling and wrapping arms around other players. You tug a shirt, you get a yellow, whether it affects play or not. Arms around another player, yellow. Start enforcing, the behavior will disappear completely. This is extremely low-hanging fruit to improve the game. Obviously hard to do with tackles, but would be a big improvement to apply in places where totally objective standards are feasible, and it would remove a lot of ugly play.

@paulnovosad Completely agree. If it was a red card for a shirt tug it would stop overnight.

@FSUmollz The semi finals have been on a weekday every World Cup forever. That’s just how the schedule works. They can’t wait a week between knockout matches to keep the games on the weekend

I can’t wait to watch the World Cup semifinals that my country is hosting on a weekday in the middle of the afternoon

@NCHammer1980 Ie there is a range of “correct calls” from absolute to very harsh. This is definitely on the harsh end of that when factoring in everything (attempt to draw the foul, occurring outside of play, not affecting the outcome, etc). Still think the England goal is more clearly dubious

@NCHammer1980 Yeah I think it’s tough to say he’s really challenging for the ball though he doesn’t end up very close to the play and adding another defender next to him certainly wouldn’t change the outcome. I technically understand it all, it’s just a soft reason to disallow, at best.

@NCHammer1980 Yeah he never has his hands by his side until he sees the opportunity to go down for a foul. But I agree with you if Haalands hands are down it can’t be called. Whether it affected the play at all is another question entirely, and I’m not sure there’s a strong argument it did 🤷‍♂️

@JenkoKent But is only the one with his hands at his sides that takes a 2 handed push to the chest. If Haaland doesnt do that, nothing is called. But he did.

@PStephenO @sejhudson I think that’s a highly valid take. It’s still rare — one kick the entire World Cup AND it led to a goal… that’s a pretty specific and unusual circumstance. But it should never be a thing.

@JenkoKent @sejhudson It’s not too rare — it happened to the Minnesota Vikings on a field goal kick and it wasn’t caught in real time almost causing them to lose the game. Cable cam needs to have more rules placed on it

Obviously have my biases here but I just don't see anything here. Has to be by far the most tenuous of the "controversies" this tournament. Even the disallowed goal involving Haaland's foul had more to debate.

@LucianChocobo Even in American football games where the ball collides with the camera you don’t see the shake in the footage. Those systems are super robust and heavy duty, with extremely good stabilization.

@danyelzan Just look at the footage from the spyder cam. Was there any vibration when the ball was supposed to hit? If there was a shake/vibration then there was a touch.

No se dejen engañar por el círculo. La parábola va en trayectoria diagonal, por eso primero se ve suave la subida y luego la caída abrupta porque va girando y acercándose a la vista No toca ningún cable

@NCHammer1980 Sorry, it’s *not*’one player with his hands by his side getting shoved.

@NCHammer1980 I didn’t say he touched his chest. They both have their arms up on each others arms. I’m not saying it’s “a push” I’m saying they both are pushing against one another. Both sets of arms are up. It’s one player with his hands by his side who gets grabbed and shoved.

@NCHammer1980 Between 0 and 1. He is pushing back and throws his arms up. Then rather than keep tussling sees the opportunity to let Haaland push him and go to ground. Arm goes up before he hits the ground. I know it’s still a foul — but that was Anderson’s goal.

@JenkoKent x.com/i/status/20762… Here is a video. Time stamp Anderson's push

@NCHammer1980 Pretty normal for these guys from what we’ve seen all tournament. Though I do hate it and want to see everything with the arms out of football. I’d happily see red cards for shirt tugging.

@JenkoKent At what point is Anderson pushing him? Haaland pushes him....twice

I actually don’t disagree with you here — it would have felt brutal for England supporters. It’s such a rare situation that it’s going to be contentious no matter what, and a shame a goal came from this particular moment. But if we’re looking for objective officiating, the correct decision is always going to be playing the rules which are clear about any kind of interference on the ball. Similarly, the disallowed Norwegian goal is technically objectively correct, because there was enough contact from Haaland, but it feels equally harsh because the English player was obviously trying to get a foul, was pushing back equally until he flopped over on purpose, and both Haaland and the English player were irrelevant to the play. I think we all just want to feel certain that the objective decisions are objective in both directions, even when disappointing for one side or the other.

Put it this way: imagine if the goal had been ruled out on the evidence that was available at the time (i.e. the quoted video and maybe a different angle). Had that happened, I think many good faith neutrals would see England as the victim of yet another poor VAR call...

@DaleJohnsonBBC I grant you the technology here is clearly not always reliable. However, what kind of insane coincidence would it have to be for our eyes as viewers, the eyes of the Norwegian players and bench, AND this 3D tech to hallucinate the exact same thing in the exact same moment?

On the 3D element. Ball flight is not quite reliable at the moment and there are many examples of the ball doing slightly strange things. For example:

This is not true. There are 16 antennas for the ball signal under the roof. Also, the 'heartbeat of the ball', was available at all times. There is a very slight 'wave' which is the ball travelling through the air.  Plus, the cable cam footage doesn't shake or move.

@ChristinaUnkel @martynziegler I wouldn’t think BBC have a bias towards Norway nor any other reason that a phantom touch would randomly appear in their recreation.

@ChristinaUnkel @martynziegler I’d love to see any such supposed replay. All available angles, including BBCs 3D recreation, show a definitive touch and shallower arc down towards the English player. The trajectory of the English player’s run also changes.

1/2 🧵 If ball touched spidercam cable before England’s equalizer, as alleged by FOX, it would have been an objective factual issue within VAR goal check to recommend no goal, as play should be stopped if the ball touches an outside agent... but nothing points to a touch...

@TheRealRobN @ChristinaUnkel It probably wouldn’t show the touch — those cameras are well stabilized and steel wired has a lot of weight and tension. The ball touching the wire is going to affect the ball much more than the wire.

@ChristinaUnkel Is there any footage from the skycam because surely if it hit the wire it could have caused a detectable motion ?

@BerwaldJoshua @LukeBarnett He has the world’s best striker wide open to his left and just… doesn’t pass. Unforgivable.

@LukeBarnett Can’t believe guy didn’t pass the ball to Haaland.

Not gonna lie probably been my favorite World Cup to watch since the Zidane head butt year.