AP, Porto Alegre :
Goal-line technology did its job when it counted at the World Cup, although not without a little bit of confusion.
France was the beneficiary of the first World Cup goal awarded thanks to the new system being used in Brazil, which ruled correctly that Honduras goalkeeper Noel Valladares had narrowly spilled the ball over his own line.
That gave France its second goal in a 3-0 win and helped rule out any real controversy in an situation that would have been difficult for any referee to judge correctly. However, Honduras players and coach Luis Suarez were still angry after the video replay showed two separate incidents and therefore conflicting results.
The goal came in the 48th minute, when Karim Benzema’s shot hit the far post and rebounded to Valladares, who fumbled the ball into the goal.
The seven video cameras trained on the goal established that the ball had briefly crossed the line by a few inches, alerting the referee on his watch with a flashing “GOAL,” before the ball was pushed out again by Valladares.
The confusion happened when the system showed replays of Benzema’s shot hitting the post with the verdict “NO GOAL” before continuing to show the rest of the sequence and the ball crossing the line.
The change infuriated the Honduras players, some of whom remonstrated with referee Sandro Ricci, while Honduras coach Luis Suarez bickered with France coach Didier Deschamps. At the end of the match, they hugged and made up.
“Well, I wasn’t angry because they accepted the goal. I was angry because they didn’t accept the goal. The first decision was ‘No goal’ and then the machine said it was a goal,” Suarez said through a translator. “So I don’t know what to think. That’s the point. If the technology sends a clear message, then I don’t understand how the system can say it’s a goal first and then ‘No goal.’ What is the truth?”
That video replay also confused some TV commentators and viewers, and France defender Mamadou Sakho said that part of the system could still be improved.
“You see ‘No goal’ and then you see ‘Goal.’ Why not just show ‘Goal’? Then everyone can agree and you don’t need to hear the jeers from the crowd,” France defender Mamadou Sakho said. “Even I doubted for 10 seconds when I saw the ‘No goal.’ I thought ‘Oh dear, he’s going to disallow it.’ But then you see the ball had crossed the line.”
