2024-02-14 13:08:50
“Andrés (Merlos), I was wrong about something…”. In this way, the referee who commanded the WAS, Yael Falcón Pérezhe went towards the referee of the match between Riestra and River At the time of the controversial play in which a penalty was awarded, it continued with a free kick and a red card, but later it ended up being annulled due to offside.
The situation occurred at 8 minutes of the second half, when Millonario was winning 3-0 (that’s how the game ended) against the Bajo Flores team. This Tuesday, two days after the match was held, the audio recordings of the technology and the exchange of words between the judges were released.
The dialogue lasts more than 8 minutes and begins with a voice-over from a female announcer explaining what had happened, clarifying the error made by the VAR. “The VAR team does not check the APP (Attacking Possession Phase) of the play, a procedure that must be carried out before making any decision.
The penalty play and the dialogue between the referees
Jonathan Herrera fell in the area after feeling contact from Leandro González Pírez. The match referee, Andrés Merlos, did not hesitate to charge a penalty for Riestra. But from the Ezeiza booths, Yael Falcón Pérez called him so that his teammate would go review the play considering that the infraction occurred outside the area.
“I need to see the contact outside,” asked Merlos, who a minute later determined that “I’m going to go with a red card for player number 14 (González Pírez) and there is a foul outside the area”. The VAR approved the decision.
Seconds later, from the cabin they asked to rewind the recording. “He comes back from offside”, they explained in relation to the offside of Nicolás Benegas, the Riestra footballer who headed it to enable Herrera. Due to that sequence, they called Merlos again from the VAR: “Andrés, I was wrong about something. There was a previous offside”while Merlos told Gonzalez Pírez not to leave and be expelled from the field of play.
“There you will see the review, the player who jumps to head is offside. There is an offside, he heads and then goes in. The mistake was mine, Andrés“Falcón Pérez acknowledged from the room. “I’m going to annul the red and I’m going to go with offside in favor of River”declared the main referee of the match.