2014 FIFA World Cup: Goal-line technology's first controversy

Ah. Just because you understood it, doesn't mean the general public did. Commentators today were saying what a mess it was. And fair enough. If it had impacted Australia, I might've been furious.

Dear NCB619, Are you still trotting out that old excuse. I distinctly remember that attractive lineslady capturing your attention at that moment. Yours Sincerely, Your coach from 1993

Many twits have scored goals at world cups...

Agree wholeheartedly with all of that, but I'd go as far to say that theres no need for any video at all. Just the watch and the whistle.

Casual theatre-watchers, will tune in to football every 4 years & then try to lecture FIFA & the football community about how the world's most popular game should be improved "to gain more fans"! How about educating yourselves, before jumping in with criticism about the world's most popular Game .. where it takes years - not moon cycles - to change rules World Cup goalline technology: how does it work? "Goalline football technology in use at the 2014 World Cup confused many in Brazil despite working perfectly" Read here: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/16/world-cup-goalline-technology-football-brazil-2014?CMP=twt_gu

You have put it correctly. The production is at fault for creating the confusion. There is no doubt it was a goal, but there was no sense of showing the whole sequence. Obviously people are excited in the stadium and they lack the cool headedness to ponder what actually happen. They usually burst into reaction at the first moment.

That is exactly what happened..

I really hope Sterling is at 100% vs Uruguay. I felt he was outstanding yesterday. With Wellbeck, Barkley (he might even start vs Uruguay? I liked him!) and Sturridge you guys have some pretty good young attacking weapons against Lugano and the heavy, slow Uruguayan defence.

Thanks Nick, After the ennui of previous tournaments I thought that was the best attacking performance from England in a World Cup match for years! I was also impressed with the spirit in which the match was played. It was telling that when Sterling went down with cramp it was two Italian defenders that came to his aid. I can only remember one booking (Sterling again), and that was more to do with clumsiness than anything malicious. The English defending was pretty woeful though, and I always have my heart in my mouth when I see Hart in goal. Both Italian goals were, I think, preventable: Marchisio's shot went past 5 English players with none of them making any move to stick a leg out, it looked to me like all them were afraid to do so in case they put it into their own net. The weather seemed to have an impact too, the unforced errors at the end of the game, from both teams, I put down to the exhausting heat. There were some horribly misplaced passes after the 80 minute mark. It'll be interesting to see how the other teams cope in that environment during Manaus' next 3 games, especially during the Honduras-Switzerland match, the only one with an afternoon kick-off.

Hi hardcore! Yep very true. If the author had written 'inebriated English supporters" though I wouldn't have commented :) ! Wasn't a bad game yesterday and I think you guys deserved a draw. Definitely still in the race imo, Uruguay didn't show anything.

I’m not going to defend Blatter, he’s been there too long and it’s time for a change but some of the criticism is a bit over the top. He didn’t want Qatar to be given hosting rights, the Confederations pick their reps not Blatter so if they turn out be corrupt it’s their fault not his. In 1998 when Sepp took over the World Cup was only worth a few hundred million. Now it’s the World’s biggest sporting event, rakes in $5 Billion which gets redistributed to the poorer Associations around the world. For all the controversies no one has ever suggested that these ‘monies’ have ever been stolen or misappropriated. The World’s biggest Auditing companies look over the books. In the same period he has overseen the growth of junior tournaments and Women’s Football. Overall he’s actually done a good job but it’s time for a change. The problem is that most of the ‘information’ about FIFA in the English speaking world comes from the British tabloids.

Exactly - the ref signalled goal straight away. When they showed the computer mock-up it said no goal initially, but we all knew that wasn't where the ball had crossed the line and waited for the next bit. The fans in the stadium, but I thought it was pretty obvious what had happened. Anyway - we'll all know next time. The technology worked and we all now kow how. It's like the first ever DRS decision in cricket - now we're all used to how it works.

The ball went over the line in a tight decision and the GLT called it correctly. Sounds like it worked to me.

Don't see the need for it to flash up on the big screen instantaneously. Wait til the ref confirms it then put up all the graphical wizardry you wish. Otherwise no biggie, storm in a teacup.

Well, GLT worked almost instantaneously without affecting the flow of the play. The only people unimpressed and confused were the thousands of Honduran supporters and the coach. As expected. Nothing to see here.

Hello Nick, my thoughts regarding the comment about the Honduran fans was that it was probably the author's attempt to hypothesise about a scenario that could've turned very ugly. Imagine the effect that an announcement of "No Goal... Goal" would have if the two nations playing were, say, England and Argentina. And it was a winning goal to either team in the dying seconds of injury time. In a knock-out match... There's the potential to inflame a situation that, in this case, FIFA don't appear to have thought about.

The GLT didn't work ONLY for people who have no clue about football and didn't realise the 'no goal' wasn't in relation to the 'controversial bit'. Am sure that even the Honduran supporters and coach got it straight away but like all football fans would have done, they cheered and tried to influence the ref, which is fair enough. The only technological bug of the night was not being able to play the 2 anthems.

Exactly hardcore. The 'no goal' in relation to the ball hitting the post was unnecessary as we had all seen that the ball hadn't passed the line. For me that was more a clumsy, amateurish error. lesson learnt one would hope. @ the author: "imagine how thousands of Honduran fans – many of whom we can assume were inebriated – felt." was that tongue in cheek?

That's right. Watching the game, I thought "Hey, that might be a goal, better hear out for the whistle." And, the whistle came. System works, just people in the stadium jumping to conclusions when they saw the first part of the replay.

Really? You're using the uniform policy to clarify a point about FIFA politics? Spain, were the home team. They had free choice over whether to wear their home or away strips. The Light and Dark policy has been around for ages, and it's not just FIFA, it happens in UEFA Champions League games too. From personal experience, it's also needed. Playing against a team who also wore dark stripes once (including shorts and socks, same as my team), I scored an own goal because of a rushed clearance as I thought I was next to an attacker. Turns out, it was a fellow defender.