Red card confusion & contentious calls - VAR's 'bad day at office'
England's friendly with Uruguay may not have been the most entertaining game, but it was certainly a bizarre and confusing one - for a number of reasons. Ben White looked to have secured victory for Thomas Tuchel side's late on, only to then be adjudged to have given away a stoppage-time penalty which Federico Valverde converted. But there was controversy around decision-making for both incidents, as well as Manuel Ugarte appearing to be shown two yellow cards but not be sent off, while Ronald Araujo went unpunished for a heavy challenge on Phil Foden.
"A bad day at the office" was England boss Tuchel's assessment of the performance of the officials in the 1-1 draw on Friday. There was confusion over how many yellow cards Manuel Ugarte was officially shown Arguably the biggest talking point - and certainly the most confusing - was Ugarte staying on the pitch despite appearing to be booked twice. The first incident came in the 70th minute when ITV's coverage displayed a graphic saying Ugarte had been booked for a foul on Cole Palmer, before the Uruguay midfielder was shown an apparent second yellow 11 minutes later for dissent after White's opener.
But rather than leave the pitch or question the decision, Ugarte walked away and play continued. It was later claimed on TV coverage of the game that the yellow card had been "rescinded" by the fourth official. However, Opta statistics show it was in fact Jose Gimenez who was booked for the first incident, and he was seen questioning referee Sven Jablonski at the time the yellow was shown.
Opta also confirmed the only yellow card Ugarte received was actually his 'second' booking in the 81st minute. On a night of bizarre incidents, two of them centred around the goals. White bundled home England's opener from a corner, but there was a check by the video assistant referee (VAR) with Adam Wharton appearing to block Gimenez in the build-up.
Former Arsenal striker Ian Wright said on ITV: "Come the World Cup, they'd probably look at that and give it as a foul. " USA Women head coach Emma Hayes added: "VAR was on and off tonight. I think nine times out of 10 blocking someone off like that is a foul and I was surprised it wasn't given.