Ok, so the use of VAR in the Confederations Cup shows that there has to be some serious trimming of what the VAR is used for. It also shows that sometimes referee assistants are bad, and sometimes they are spot on.
In the Portugal v México game, the VAR was used after Pepe appeared to have opened the scoring for Portugal in the 21st minute. In this case, the VAR determined that the goal should be disallowed because of a very obvious offside violation during the immediate buildup to the goal. Indeed, the violation is so obvious, it’s unclear how the assistant referee didn’t spot it in the first place. Kudos to the VAR.
In the Chile v Cameroon game, however, things got dicey. At the end of the first half, Chile had a goal chalked off by the VAR. Again, the VAR was probably right (the player is in my opinion pretty clearly offside), but the evidence is not 100% (his feet are even with the feet of the opponent, but his torso is leaning towards the goal, past the opponent). Some have criticized the call, but I think it’s quite correct.
However, in the dying moments of the game, Chile were again clearly offside (Sanchez mistimed his attempted run). Nevertheless, he latches onto the ball, takes it downfield, and, after dribbling for a while across the goal, has a shot blocked, with the rebound put in by a clearly onside teammate. However, the flag is up, presumably for the original offside by Sanchez. In steps the VAR, and this time, the VAR over-rules the call and awards the goal. Say what???
Now, if you are using video technology, it should be used to produce more accurate results. If it isn’t doing that, there is a problem. Further, it is of no help if it ends up making the officials less accurate in THEIR calls, feeling that the VAR is just going to clean up the mess. Based upon today’s results, we cannot say that VAR is a success.