Bugger all. Even though it was a good tournament, that WWC had awful refereeing. The failure to disallow that first German goal was just one of many examples of poor officiating at that tournament/incorrect use of VAR. FIFA's own rulebook gave that very example (attacker obscuring the GK's view) as an example of a goal that should be disallowed. When bad calls like this keep happening (especially against African teams) the reaction of Cameroon can be contextualised. Other examples:
1) The controversial offside goal in Cameroon v England should not have been awarded. If you clearly watch the freeze frame, viewers/VAR are unable to see the exact moment the ball was played because several players obscured the view of the ball, so one cannot judge when the ball was played or determine if the England player was onside. When doubt like that exists or if the replay footage is inconclusive, goals should not be awarded.
2) The retaken penalty fiasco involving France and Nigeria. That must be one of the worst bits of officiating in the history of pro football and was borderline match fixing. FIFA law 14 on penalties states that:
(a)
If the attacking team encroaches into the area, and the penalty is not scored - an indirect FK should be given to the defending team.(b) If the GK steps off the line and the penalty is not scored, it must be retaken.
1 and 2 above happened simultaneously in the game. Yet
for some unexplainable reason the officials only "remembered" one part of Law 14.Let us not forget that the sequence of play that led up to the penalty started when the ref incorrectly gave a corner to France (instead of a goal kick to Nigeria). A call for which Ordega (who had ricocheted the ball off a French player out of play) protested in vain.
In the space of a couple of minutes: the ref incorrectly gave a corner to France, sent off a Nigerian player, booked another, awarded 2 penalties against Nigeria, and allowed France to score a retaken PK.
I struggle to think of any other game in the history of football where a team has been penalised 6 times in one sequence of play.
Enugu II wrote:
For me that was one of the most annoying calls at the WWC. Before the kick, the German player was actively blocking the Nigerian goalie and when the ball went in I thought to myself that the VAR will surely lead to a disallowed goal because the German player, in front of the Nigerian GK, interfered with the play. I was indeed surprised that the goal was not ruled out. I was miffed.
Damunk wrote:
It'll be interesting to know what the FIFA technical report says on this.
Enugu II wrote:
Analysts claimed that the 'interference' was not much and the keeper could still get to the ball. I was shocked because that play was more blatant than the photo examples provided in fifa's own rulebook about such interferences. Nevertheless the referee used discretion which I must state was highly questionable in that instance.