Tribune News Network
Doha
Saudi Arabia pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the World Cup history by defeating favourites Argentina at the Lusail Stadium on Monday, and it will go down as one of greatest humiliations for La Albiceleste in history.
While the Green Falcons' stunning 2-1 victory is setting social media ablaze, a parallel chatter is picking up a few laughs, and leading to a lot of consternation, at the expense of the match referees.
The fact that Argentina had three goals ruled out for offside has triggered an explosion of funny memes on social media.
Argentina should have been quite comfortable by half-time in their opening World Cup game against Saudia Arabia, but that was not to be.
Argentina's first goal, made by Lionel Messi, was cancelled by the linesman before striker Lautaro Martinez had a goal agonisingly ruled out by VAR for offside. Then, Messi was denied a second goal by the offside flag.
This has proved enough gun powder for social media explosion of memes, many of which had Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo — seen by Messi fans as his eternal rival — working in the VAR control room.
Another quirky one had a man with an abnormally huge upper arm compared to the linesman.
Although Messi opened the scoring for Argentina from the penalty spot, Saudi Arabia flipped the game on its head, scoring two goals in a space of few minutes, 10 minutes into half time, thanks to Saleh Al-Shehri and Salem Al Dawsari.
Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology has been used at the highest levels of football for the past five years, including major leagues and European competitions such as the Champions League and Europa League.
FIFA announced that VAR and semi-automated offside technology would be utilized in Qatar. These technologies aim to be a support tool for both video match and on-field officials to help them make faster, more accurate offside decisions.
