Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata got introduced to “Mr. VAR” today. The Spaniard scored, or at least he temporarily thought, just before half time in United’s 2-0 win at Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup fifth round clash. He began celebrating…until referee Kevin Friend made it known that an offside call was made by VAR (Video Assistant Referee).
It was indeed the tightest of margins; certainly a borderline situation. Juan Mata, in postgame interviews, gave his reaction to the ruling.
“I did what I had to do which was to score and celebrated, then after I saw the referee speaking to someone and you look silly when the goal is denied,” Mata said.
The United star is still in favor of VAR despite it not going in his favor today.
“I’m up for VAR and I think it is good for football especially to make important decisions and make it a little bit fairer but it seems like today it was not a very clear decision against us and me.”
“The good thing was that it was not needed [the goal] because we won anyway but I think we all wished it was quicker. I celebrated and it didn’t count.”
In the video below you can see Mata and Lukaku discussing the technology, and taking a look at the replay.
Full video here = https://t.co/58XGmoDIKU
— BeanymanSports (@BeanymanSports) February 17, 2018
After the match, United manager Jose Mourinho gave his take on VAR, saying that today’s situation was not clear and obvious, and thus went against its protocol.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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