GavinN

Father, Finance, Gardener, Builder, Recycling master... Sports, UW Football, music, DMB, off grid, whole organic foods, remodeling

[GavinN @GavinN]

Proof I was there 😄

[DMB Gorge Crew @DMBGorgeCrew]

Still got the hops

📷 Sanjay Suchak The Gorge 2023

#dmb #davematthewsband #davematthews #dmbgorgecrew #dmbgc #gorgecrew

[Ante Kusurin @Ante_Kule]

A friend’s breakdown of the Croatia-Portugal VAR decision is worth reading, and I agree with it in full. If this pattern continues, it reinforces a growing perception that success at the top level of football is shaped less by merit than by money and influence. @FIFAcom does not appear sufficiently committed to transparency or fairness in how these decisions are made and reviewed. At the highest level, outcomes are often decided by the smallest of margins — which is why officiating in these moments matters so much. The officials in this match made a call that ended @HNS_CFF’s run, and the reasoning behind it does not hold up to scrutiny.

The Croatia Call Might Be the Worst in Sports History

I’ve had a full day to sit with the Croatia call. I’ve watched the replays, gone through the rules, and measured it against the worst officiating disasters in sports.

My conclusion: that disallowed goal may be the worst call ever made. Not the most famous. Not the most argued-about. The worst.

Here’s why it differs from the usual suspects.

It isn’t Maradona’s Hand of God, where a referee missed a handball in real time, before video review existed. It isn’t Jim Joyce robbing Galarraga of a perfect game — brutal, but a split-second human error. It isn’t the Saints-Rams no-call, where everyone watching knew a flag belonged on the field. It isn’t Don Denkinger in the ’85 World Series.

Those were humans missing something fast and hard to see. This was the opposite.

The call on the field was a goal. Croatia had equalized in the final minutes, 2-2, headed for extra time. Then VAR stepped in — and instead of clean visual proof of a touch, instead of the ball’s path or spin actually changing, officials leaned on a faint “blip” from the chip inside the ball. That was the entire basis for reversal.

Watch it back. The trajectory doesn’t shift. The spin doesn’t shift. It sails past the defender’s head with no visible contact. Yet that blip was enough to rule a touch, which made the next Croatian player offside, which erased the goal, which ended Croatia’s tournament.

It gets worse. Even granting the faintest touch, that shouldn’t have ended the analysis. Under offside law, a defender who deliberately plays the ball can reset the offside phase. So the real question wasn’t just “did he touch it?” — it was “did the Portuguese defender deliberately play it afterward?” If he moved toward it, attacked it, got a genuine piece of it before the attacker entered the play, there’s a real case the phase should’ve reset. A stray deflection doesn’t reset offside. A deliberate play does. VAR needed to examine that too, not stop at a sensor reading and call it settled.

So the failure stacked in layers: a correct goal on the field, an alleged touch the video doesn’t clearly support, a sensor blip treated as proof, and a deliberate-play question never addressed — wiping out a stoppage-time equalizer.

This is what makes it worse than an ordinary blown call. VAR exists so referees don’t have to live with missing something huge in real time, with bad angles and bodies flying everywhere. That’s forgivable. But here, the on-field call was right. Review had every advantage — multiple angles, unlimited time, total control — and still overturned a goal on a sensor reading the footage doesn’t back up. A different category of failure entirely.

In a knockout game. On a goal that would’ve forced extra time. When the standard for overturning a call should be sky-high.

If the video doesn’t clearly show the touch, and the ball doesn’t react like it was touched, how do you erase a country’s World Cup on a sensor blip? And even allowing the faintest contact, how do you not fully examine whether the deliberate play should have reset offside?

VAR isn’t supposed to manufacture microscopic, unverifiable infractions. It shouldn’t take a goal off unless the error is unmistakable. This wasn’t unmistakable. It wasn’t obvious. And it changed everything.

[Washington Athletics @UWAthletics]

Welcome back to our pitch, Poch!

[Dan @CfcDan_01]

🚨Zlatan Ibrahimovic on VAR after Croatia’s last-minute equaliser vs Portugal was ruled out:*

This referees are doing everything possible for Ronaldo to win the world cup but they will say Messi is the FIFA boy , This ball was never an Offside because the ball didn't touch the Croatia player , This is pure daylight robbery.

"The referee and VAR have just erased what should have been one of the greatest moments of this World Cup.”

"Let’s be clear: if you’re going to cancel a goal in the 90th minute, the evidence has to be beyond doubt. I’ve watched the incident multiple times, from every angle, and I still don’t see anything conclusive enough to overturn it.”

"If you’re in that VAR room for minutes, pausing, zooming, drawing lines to a shoulder, a boot, a heel… it’s not clear and obvious. And if it’s not clear, the goal must stand. That’s the whole point of VAR.”

"The referee has allowed technology to become the main character. But fans don’t fill stadiums or stay up late to watch a screen. They come for football — for drama, for emotion, for moments you remember forever.”

"Croatia showed real fight. They dug in, they scored late, they thought they’d earned a dramatic equaliser to keep their dream alive. Then one decision ripped it away, and that decision will be argued about for years.”

"This is why confidence in VAR is collapsing. It’s no longer fixing obvious mistakes. It’s hunting millimeters that nobody in the stadium can see with their own eyes. That’s not what football is supposed to be.”

"I feel for those Croatian players more than anything. You celebrate, you believe your World Cup is back on, and then it’s gone in seconds. For me, the referee on the pitch and VAR in the booth both got it wrong.

[San Cadilla @SanCadilla]

Aguantó el aguacero de pie y todo por apoyar a @ussoccer en su pase a los Octavos de Final en el FIFA FAN Festival de @Gdl2026
Fotos: Jorge Rangel

[Caleb®️ @awsomehog1]

Ok hear me out yall we’ve got just under a week to make this work in Seattle #worldcup #usmnt

[GavinN @GavinN]

So great 🇺🇸

[USMNT Only @usmntonly]

THE TELEMUNDO CALL OF THE MALIK TILLMAN FREE KICK IS THE BEST THING YOU'LL EVER HEAR 🇺🇸🦅❤️

[Tim Booth @ByTimBooth]

The U.S. will play Belgium in a nationally televised prime time game on Monday night from Lumen Field…

Which if history has told us anything about prime time games at Lumen, something weird we’ve never seen before is likely to happen and probably in the north end zone.

[GavinN @GavinN]

@dickfain @FOXSports Agreed. That was perfection.

[GavinN @GavinN]

@USMNT

[Budweiser @budweiserusa]

Go USA, RT to pass it on. ⚽️

[U.S. Soccer Men's National Team @USMNT]

🚁🚁 Views of Seattle from yesterday's flyover 👀

[Alexi Lalas @AlexiLalas]

🇺🇸🦅 man

[USMNT Only @usmntonly]

ABSOLUTE GOOSEBUMPS AS THE ENTIRE STADIUM SINGS 'TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROADS' WITH THE USMNT PLAYERS AFTER THE WIN AGAINST AUSTRALIA

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
❤️❤️❤️

[FOX Sports @FOXSports]

Sound UP for how hype these @USMNT fans are in Seattle 🔊

[GavinN @GavinN]

I'VE CAST MY VOTE FOR ROUND 1 https://t.co/0sKCtYDbuL

[GavinN @GavinN]

Just built my all-time Husky roster on Dawg Dynasty. Play yours at https://t.co/MsEGfcc2fj, then grab season tickets so we can do it for real at the Greatest Setting in College Football next fall: https://t.co/A7VjMOrd2D

[ESPN Insights @ESPNInsights]

Chris Richards 83/83 completed passes are the most passes with 100% accuracy by any player in a FIFA World Cup match since 1966 👏

[GavinN @GavinN]

🇺🇸💯

[Taylor Twellman @TaylorTwellman]

Clinic. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[GavinN @GavinN]

For sure. That was next level.

[Kyle Bonagura @BonaguraESPN]

All things considered, that's the most impressive half of soccer the USMNT has ever played. Absolutely incredible stuff.

[FOX Sports @FOXSports]

PULISIC'S PASSION 🦅