(Opinion) Real Madrid and Barcelona show us the potential pitfalls of robot umpires
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Photo by David Ramos / Getty images
By Connor Buestad | Connor@Section925.com
Tuning into El Classico between Real Madrid and Barcelona on Sunday morning was supposed to get me 90 minutes of The Beautiful Game with a collection of the greatest soccer players in the world, only interrupted by a brief halftime, long enough more me to refill my coffee while I ignored the block of commercials. I was fully bought in. I knew I wasn’t going to have to run the risk of a Jonas Brothers concert breaking out in the middle of play like I did the night before during Game 2 of the World Series. I was prepared for beautiful passes, brilliant touches and uncanny finishes by the likes of Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappe, Lamine Yamal, Marcus Rashford and Pedri. What I got instead was a tutorial in how powerful the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) is nowadays in the world of soccer. Basically if an important play occurred, the game suddenly stopped while they dissected said play on video replay. They eventually came to a conclusion on how to call the foul and half the fans were still convinced they got it wrong. It got me thinking, is this what we want baseball, an already slow game, to turn into? Are we sure the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) robotic umpire system is the direction we have to go in?
The VAR palooza in this morning’s match started less than two minutes in, as Vini Jr. was taken down by 18-year-old phenom Yamal inside the box. It looked to the naked eye like an obvious penalty and even after watching the video replay, both announcers agreed it should be a PK. “There’s no doubt about that being a penalty,” they assured us. Instead, after minutes of deliberation the call on the pitch was overturned and no penalty was awarded. Nil-nil the score remained.
Less than ten minutes later, Real Madrid struck again, this time courtesy of French icon Mbappe as he cracked a one timer from well outside the box for a beautiful goal, leaving the keeper with no chance. The stadium erupted in celebration. A magical goal from a magical finisher, performing at the top of his game, in one of the biggest matches of the year. The only thing that could get in the way of the moment was a high definition computer program that could somehow prove he was one centimeter offside. That’s exactly what happened. When Mbappe finally did score, for real, in the 21st minute, I really had no idea if I should get excited about it or just wait to watch the whole episode on replay to confirm if it was really a goal or not. At this point, VAR replay had me exhausted. Little did I know, a debated handball off the foot of Rashford would result in even more delays early in the second half.
I guess this means Mbappe was not onside?
The rest of the match was played as expected, at an extremely high level with stars of the game everywhere you looked. But the starts and stops and total reliance on video at the start of the match soured the rest of it for me, I must admit. Fermin Lopez scored a beautiful goal for Barcelona to equalize things and Bellingham scored what proved to be the game winner late in the first half for Madrid, but the match ended just as choppy as it started, with both clubs jawing at each other on the sideline, even more distraction from the the play on the pitch.
Late in Game 7 of the ALCS last week, with a trip to the World Series hanging in the balance, the Mariners’ Eugenio Suarez got rung up on a curveball outside of the strike zone in a huge spot. The pitch was dangerously close to the zone and the umpire took the liberty to rock back and ring up Suarez. Naturally, Suarez got in the umpire’s face a bit and gave him a piece of his mind, before turning around and walking to the dugout. It was a classic baseball play. Great pitch, tough call, and intense reaction. Onto the next play. Instead, next year that same pitch will stop the game for five to ten minutes. It will be analyzed on replay in slo-motion while advertisers pump a few more spots in front of you while you wait. The end result will still be disagreement. Boos will still rain down from the upper deck, gamblers will still throw beer cans at their TV. The only difference is that they will be yelling at a robot.
