Typical VAR.
4 minutes too long.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

I made the line along the grass color change ahead of them and just moved it. Obviously that won't be exactly right, but while it looks very close I can believe that it was offside.

Yeah, it does look offside.

Messi's time to finally win an international trophy.

The official broadcast suggested he was about 5 inches offside (less than your line), though even this assumes that only the colombian players' legs are to be assessed in the process. Unsure what the rulebook says in that regard.

Thankfully we won out on penalties anyway. We were the better team by far. Colombians were very keen on going to penalties, which I found quite puzzling.

Ospina made an outstanding save early on to keep them in the game, but was very average after and could have cost them if not for the tight offside call.

If Uruguay beat Perú as, everyone expects them to, Copa América is wide open. Chile-Uruguay has become a bit of a derby in recent years, so with the other semi-final being Brazil-Argentina it'll make for some intense and entertaining football.

Also, Alexis is back in great form. Hadn't seen him play like this since 2017. Hope he kills it for Chile and is too tired to transfer his great form to manU.

RC8 wrote:

The official broadcast suggested he was about 5 inches offside (less than your line), though even this assumes that only the colombian players' legs are to be assessed in the process. Unsure what the rulebook says in that regard.

My line doesn't really give an exact length as the rulebook state that all bodyparts that are allowed to use also count for offside, if I remember correctly. You can't really see on my line where the shoulders are for example, I'm just pointing out that this doesn't seem like a horrendous call to me. 

As to the Colombians wanting to go to penalties, that is quite usual if Chile was by far the better team, is it not? The lesser team will have gotten more than expected value from the match if it goes to penalties, and vice versa. 

Jed wrote:

Messi's time to finally win an international trophy.

Haven't really followed the tourney, but haven't Argentina been awful? 

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Jed wrote:

Messi's time to finally win an international trophy.

Haven't really followed the tourney, but haven't Argentina been awful? 

They've looked pretty good with Messi being poor recently (in the last two games). Lautaro Martinez is looking like the next great Argentinian striker. 

Meanwhile, Messi has complained about the pitch: 

https://www.sport-english.com/en/news/lionel-messi-the-copa-america-pitches-are-a-disgrace-7527918

Uruguay knocked out on penalties. Looks like Chile will make the final yet again.

At least Uruguay are out because of Suarez missed penalty. Must have bitten off more than he could chew.

Muswell Hill Gooner wrote:

This COPA has been boring.
Only one team out of eight scored in the quarter-finals.

Ridiculous. But VAR has played a big part in that.

[font=Source Sans Pro]My line doesn't really give an exact length as the rulebook state that all bodyparts that are allowed to use also count for offside, if I remember correctly. You can't really see on my line where the shoulders are for example, I'm just pointing out that this doesn't seem like a horrendous call to me. [/font]

[font=Source Sans Pro]As to the Colombians wanting to go to penalties, that is quite usual if Chile was by far the better team, is it not? The lesser team will have gotten more than expected value from the match if it goes to penalties, and vice versa. [/font]

Yes, if you draw the line from the colombian player's head and shoulders to the ground you see the chilean player was not offside. It's only if you count his feet as the only relevant body part that the chilean player appears to be offside by 5 inches or so. I don't think VAR officials could argue that this thing was offside beyond reasonable doubt, and as such I think it should have stood.

Chile was much better on the day, but Colombia had been having a much better Copa América and were favourites to get to the final. I am surprised that, throughout the game, they were happy to sit back and counter (very unsuccessfully). I guess maybe they didn't count on their counters being so ineffective, but I genuinely expected them to have us against the ropes for part of the match.

Drawing the line that way would be wrong. If a player stands completely still his feet and shoulder will be equally positioned offside/onside-wise, but if I move the line from the feet to the shoulder it would change a lot. Your suggestion would only work if the photo was taken directly from above.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Drawing the line that way would be wrong. If a player stands completely still his feet and shoulder will be equally positioned offside/onside-wise, but if I move the line from the feet to the shoulder it would change a lot. Your suggestion would only work if the photo was taken directly from above.

Let me put it this way: it is obvious from that angle that it is very close when you only consider their feet. We know from other TV angles that the colombian player was leaning forward towards his own goal at the time, and thus using only his feet for reference is not accurate. Considering that by the time the chilean player receives the ball that was slowly lobbed to him there are four colombian players ahead of him, I don't think giving that as an offside is a sensible decision.
 
Just like you shouldn't give a penalty from an unintentional and inconsequential handball because 'maybe it touched his hand', you should not disallow goals based on speculative nonsense like this.

Could this Copa America save Alexis’ career as an elite player? Hope he is not too rejuvenated for Utd.

Muswell Hill Gooner wrote:

I don't think his career as an elite is salvageable.
Age has set in and the zip is gone.

Yes but winning the Copa america with his country could give him a second wind

He’ll just come back tired and jaded and injury prone.

This is his last hurrah. He can't run any more though, so his days at the top end of football are behind him

He’s top heavy and his once muscular lean body is now pure dad bod

Used to be springy now has lost that burst

2-0 Firminho, but it's entirely Gabriel Jesus's goal:

What a player he is. He needs to leave City as soon as humanly possible.

Muswell Hill Gooner wrote:

Argentina actually played well.
Dani Alves was MOTM for me though.
All important first goal was made by him but he actually shone in defence.

I agree. Alves is just a freak, he had that Javier Zanetti stamina today. It looked like he could run for days. 

Jesus definitely had his best game in a Brazil shirt today, he's been often criticized about how poorly he's played with them. 

Argentina picked it up during the 2nd half and it went downhill with Di Maria coming on and bringing in Dybala too late. 

Klaus wrote:

2-0 Firminho, but it's entirely Gabriel Jesus's goal:

What a player he is. He needs to leave City as soon as humanly possible.

That's his first decent performance for Brazil just about imo.

Bit surprised Firmino didn't try his retarded "trademark" no look goal. He's like that annoying piece of shit kid in the park that would always try and skill his opponents and in the 1/100 attempt that it works wouldn't shut up about it. Honestly hoping Brazil lose for him alone

Damn completely missed the blatant foul in the background. Just seen the Messi interview and he has every right to be pissed

Ffs disgraceful stuff. Fair dues to Argentina for trying but they were up against it

jones wrote:

That's his first decent performance for Brazil just about imo.

Jesus? Really? Bloke almost always performs for the national team whenever I see them, World Cup aside. Firminho is the one who looks a bit out of his depth most times to me. He's a good player but you can also tell that's all he is. He doesn't have another tier in him, no ability to pull off anything unexpected.

Messi has no chill.
I wish all after match interviews were like this.

"They (VAR) got tired of calling shitty fouls in this Copa America and today they didn't even check it. Today they never went to the VAR. All the bullshit decisions were to favour them (Brazil). Cards for us, not for them. There were clear fouls that he (the referee) never saw. In the tournament there were shit handballs, stupidfuck penalties, and tonight nothing. I hope that Conmebol does something, although I do not think it will do anything because Brazil manages everything."

"You go mad because those are plays that take you out of the match, because the referee is not being fair. Unconsciously you leave the game. Zambrano said us to be calm, but he disrespected us with his performance as referee".

"In hot it is difficult to analyze. But they found themselves with a goal from nothing, in an isolated play. Beyond that, we always tried and we had the ball. They grabbed us in a counter and then we put two shots in the bar. And the penalties that they didn't gave us..."

"We played a great game, a very big effort. Brazil was not superior to us. We weren't able, but we have nothing to reproach ourselves for because we left everything behind. We had chances, the shot in the bar, the penalties and the two balls that crossed alongside the goal line..."

Messi is a whiney little shit. Far too used to being on the right end of biased officiating and corruption at Barca.

Daz wrote:

Messi is a whiney little shit. Far too used to being on the right end of biased officiating and corruption at Barca.

Daz wrote:

Messi is a whiney little shit. Far too used to being on the right end of biased officiating and corruption at Barca.

You can find plenty of shit on Barcelona, but ffs they're screwed over by the ref nearly every week.

Peru 2-0. Chile's golden age is truly done. Deserved scoreline so far