Copa América | Conmebol published the VAR audios of Uruguay’s controversial goal against the United States. Was it offside?

The America Cup is finishing its first phase with final days in each of the groups. Yesterday, in the confrontation between Uruguay and the United States, There was controversy over the only goal of the match due to a possible offside.

This edition of the tournament has not been without its various refereeing challenges. Kevin Ortega, the central referee of the match, was harshly criticized for the decision to validate the goal after moments of tension in which the VAR delayed in deliberating its legitimacy. In fact, the match had been with several clashes between players of the two teams that were fueled by validating the goal that, for many, was not legal due to an offside by Mathias Olivera.

The controversial play of Uruguay’s goal

With the goal scored by Uruguay, the host team was out of the quarter-finals as it could not lose its last match to seal qualification. In the 66th minute, After a cross from Nicolás De La Cruz that was headed by Ronald Araujo and blocked by Matt Turner, Mathías Olivera took advantage of the fact that the goalkeeper was beaten and shot towards goal.

At the time, it seemed that Olivera was clearly offside and caused discomfort to the rival team, who, convinced, complained to the centre-back about his supposed bad decision. For this reason, Conmebol published the official audios between the referees on the field and the assistants in the VAR room in which the entire process of drawing lines to determine whether it was valid or not can be seen.

The VAR audios published

The main problem in determining whether it was a goal or not was the camera angles, which were also criticised in the first minutes of the match due to their distance from the field of play. In the VAR, the situation was not very different: With a camera from above to the right of the sides of the field, lines were drawn indicating that the central referee had made the best decision.

Finally, they validated the goal after analyzing two actions: Araújo’s header and Olivera’s goal. “I confirm the situation, both actions are fine, but they are allowed,” the main assistant finally assured.