Monday, October 4th, 2021
“Collina’s heirs” sympathize with us
They were really stressed in Wolfsburg
By Alex Feuerherdt
In Wolfsburg, the referee, together with his helpers and the monitor, has a lot of work to do. The team also solves tricky situations correctly or at least in a justifiable manner. There was only one case where it wasn’t consistent, but that wasn’t decisive.
There are games that not only involve a whole host of challenging situations for the referee team on the field, but also bring a lot of work to the video assistant. The game between VfL Wolfsburg and Borussia Mönchengladbach (1: 3) is definitely one of them. Tricky offside questions about goals, difficult scenes in the penalty area, expulsion from the field because of “emergency brakes” – referee Frank Willenborg, his assistants Guido Kleve and Arne Aarnink and VAR Sascha Stegemann had their hands full.
Even with the two early goals for the guests after five and seven minutes, Kleve was particularly challenged because the question arose whether the goal scorers, Breel Embolo and Jonas Hofmann, were offside. In both cases, the images with the calibrated lines and the plumb line from the Cologne video center showed that the assistant was right with his perception: offside positions were barely given in each case.
The hit rate of helpers on the sidelines when evaluating possible offside situations is over 90 percent in the Bundesliga – an outstanding figure when you consider how close it gets almost every time and how fast the game is. The assistants have long been specially trained specialists who, in addition to their strong powers of observation, their strong anticipation of moves, their precise positioning and their many years of experience, also have a good feel for the situation and sometimes luck help them to evaluate situations correctly.
Embolo falls twice but only gets one penalty
After 31 minutes, Wolfsburg’s Kevin Mbabu went into a risky tackle against Embolo in his own penalty area, who fell while the ball rolled out of the goal. Referee Willenborg decided on a corner kick, so had noticed a ball contact by Mbabu. There actually was, although it was not very clear, but the Wolfsburg defender had hit Embolo with his other leg and brought him to the ground. Overall, there was more in favor of a penalty than against it, but there was no really bad decision. It is understandable that VAR Stegemann did not intervene.
Even after 76 minutes, Embolo was in the spotlight when Maxence Lacroix brought him down with a tackle in the Wolfsburg penalty area in a central position eleven meters in front of the goal. This time it was clear because there was no ball contact. The prudent Willenborg therefore rightly decided on a penalty and sent Lacroix off the field with yellow and red. The Wolfsburg had prevented an obvious goal chance, but he was oriented when tackling the ball, which he just missed. There is no red card for a ball-related “emergency brake” in the penalty area, only a yellow card – which nevertheless meant the expulsion for Lacroix, who had already been warned.
In this situation, too, the assistant deserves special praise: Arne Aarnink had, as the offside line from Cologne showed, correctly noticed that Embolo was barely offside during the pass. Had that been different, the penalty and the match penalty would have had to be withdrawn. As it was, it was the penalty, which Lars Stindl missed miserably – Koen Casteels parried the weak shot relatively effortlessly.
The penalty for Gladbach should have been repeated
Regardless, the penalty should have been repeated. Not so much because Casteels’ team-mate Maximilian Arnold ran into the penalty area too early – in practice, the referees usually overlook such an infringement generously, provided that the player in question does not directly influence the outcome of the penalty kick. The video assistant is also only allowed to intervene if there is such influence, for example if the player who preceded too early prevents a margin.
The problem here was rather that the goalkeeper was the host with both feet in front of the goal line at the moment of execution. As is well known, this is not allowed, one foot must be on or above this line. Violations, on the other hand, should be punished consistently if the goalkeeper saves the ball from the penalty kick – if necessary with the help of the VAR, if the check clearly shows that the goalkeeper left the goal line prematurely with both feet. With Casteels, as the perspective from behind the goal shows, it was significantly more than just a few centimeters, so the offense was actually clear enough for an intervention.
Red against Roussillon was rightly withdrawn
But there was an intervention from Cologne four minutes later. Referee Willenborg had initially sent Jérôme Roussillon from Wolfsburg with a red card because of an “emergency brake” around 23 meters from the home side’s goal. The case seemed clear at first glance, but when reviewing the decision, video assistant Stegemann noticed that Roussillon had played the ball first in his tackle against Jonas Hofmann. This was hardly noticeable at real speed because the ball had not changed its direction of travel afterwards.
By playing the ball fairly, the situation changed: The Wolfsburg player was clearly on the play equipment that was hit. Hofmann then fell because he tripped over Roussillon’s legs, and not because Roussillon actively tripped him. Since the referee had obviously not noticed the ball contact, the interference was just as justified as the decision made after the subsequent on-field review: Willenborg withdrew the expulsion and continued the game with a referee’s ball. The always calm and level-headed referee was spared further stressful moments in this eventful game.