Huh? I mostly watch the refereeing shitshow of Premier League so I think overall WC has been alright.

Soft penalty for Argentina though, especially considering Maquire didn't get one yesterday. This kind of inconsistency is a problem.

Between the new offside technology that's supposedly super fast but takes 2 minutes to rule a goal out for an offside arm, the VAR stopping play even during dangerous attacks to call a controversial penalty 2 minutes late, the insane amounts of added time for no real reason, and players getting free kicks basically at will, this World Cup has had probably the worst officiating I've ever seen and I too mostly watch the Premier League.

VAR isn't inherently bad for the game but the way it's being used in the World Cup kills the momentum of the game and it's killing the spectacle - and it's not doing it in the name of more "correct" calls either, with a number of dubious decisions already.

Anyway.

Embarassing to take that as an Argentine, but fair play to Saudi Arabia. They came with a real hunger and desire, everyone played their hearts out, scored beautiful goals and did it all with no dubious penalties or soft fouls and had to survive through 20 minutes of stoppage time. Referee and VAR did everything they could to help Argentina win (well, except the offside on Lautaro's arm) and we still couldn't do it. 3 and a half years unbeaten to lose to Saudi Arabia at the World Cup opener is... something.

Yeah what's with the ridiculously long extra time?

FIFA decided they wanted to do it, so it's happening.

i hate it when @Carl can gloat

Might as well have added a third half.

I always thought the added time was way too short for how much time wasting goes on.  I don't know if this is an overcorrection, but in general I think it is a step in the right direction.

Definitely an overcorrection. 10 added minutes at the second half of England vs. Iran when nothing particularly time-consuming happened, on a dead and buried game too. It's dangerous for the players, it's like they're playing extra time every game.

It's one thing to punish time wasting, but another entirely to start adding shit tons of minutes for goal celebrations or just about any stoppages at all. Never mind the ridiculously long VAR stoppages that add up several minutes at the end of each half, when most of the checks didn't even need to happen.

Added time should only ever go above 5 or 6 minutes if there's some major reason for it, like the injury to Iran's goalkeeper for example, otherwise it's just nonsense. There hasn't been much in the way of blatant time-wasting yet in this World Cup.

Ok these penalties are way too soft...

The main driver for the England Iran second half was the Maguire injury, then probably plus a bit for the VAR penalty check.

And no, not like extra time at all because its making up time from the 90 where no play took place.