VAR genie let out of the bottle
ST PETERSBURG: and Denmark.
Compare that with the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where fans and viewers sat through five scoreless group games and two more in the knockout rounds.
Criticism of referees and of VAR has been harsh, but the overall impact of both has been positive.
A record number of penalties have been awarded for foul play, while the sort of horror tackles that have scarred the consciousness of whole nations in the past has been largely conspicuous by its absence.
Spain’s Gerard Pique got away with a two-footed lunge on Morocco’s Khalid Boutaib, and Croatia’s Ante Rebic was lucky to only see yellow for a stamp on Argentine Eduardo Salvio in the group stages.
But overall, the 2018 tournament has witnessed more histrionics than malicious intent.
Neymar has made an unwanted name for himself here, with his agonised rolling on the turf giving rise to a series of memes that have flooded the internet.
In the game against Costa Rica, he was a constant thorn in Kuipers’ side, questioning every decision until the Dutchman lost patience and motioned sharply for him to stop talking, causing the Brazilian to retreat into sulky silence.
But Neymar is far from the only guilty party when it comes to trying to influence referees.
Perhaps the biggest unintended consequence of VAR is that it has put a question mark over the man in the middle’s authority to have the final say.
Images of coaches and players signalling frantically for video reviews abound, while Colombia’s seemingly orchestrated campaign to sway referee Mark Geiger in their last-16 clash with England was undoubtedly a low point.
Half the team surrounded Geiger when he awarded England a penalty for a foul on Harry Kane and the American’s performance drew plenty of criticism.
The sight of Geiger surrounded on all sides by incandescent Colombian players has also elicited a fair bit of sympathy for the referee, a former mathematics teacher.
The technology genie is out of the bottle, and while a number of refinements must be made for it to reach peak effectiveness, it is already showing signs it can lead to a paradigm shift.