An unusual offside call delayed the opening goal of the World Cup, as Ecuador’s third-minute opening goal against Qatar was called back.
A Pervis Estupiñán free kick from near midfield drew Qatar goalkeeper Saad Al-Sheeb off his line for an attempted punch, but Félix Torres got his head to the service first. Chaos ensued, with the ball bouncing amid hesitant players from both sides. Al-Sheeb retreated to his line, while Michael Estrada kept the play alive with a second header.
That guided the ball towards Torres, who went for an acrobatic volley. Torres didn’t get good contact on the ball, but he did enough to float it to the back post for Enner Valencia to easily head home from four yards out.
It would have been the fastest-ever opening goal in a World Cup, but over a minute after the ball crossed the line, referee Daniele Orsato signaled that the semi-automated VAR system was chalking the goal off.
What happened?
Initially, it seemed that the issue was Valencia’s positioning when the free kick came in. Qatar’s abysmal marking left the Fenerbahçe veteran wide open, but one brief replay made it look like Valencia might have been ahead of the ball when Torres beat Al-Sheeb to the initial service.
Boualem Khoukhi was clearly between Valencia and the goal, and while it looked like Almoez Ali was level with the Ecuadorian marksman, the early signs pointed to the call going against Valencia anyway.
"It's a very strange offside decision, but one that happens when the goalkeeper comes off the line like that."@DrJoeMachnik breaks down the VAR decision: pic.twitter.com/hpEhyI7YNa
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) November 20, 2022
It’s not very common for the two players between an attacker and the goal to not include a goalkeeper, but it can happen in situations like this. Between the potential for that being the issue, and a lack of initial information from the broadcast — which was not helped by the frantic first few minutes of the match — plenty of viewers worldwide were at a loss.
It was only a few minutes later that the audience found out that the call was actually against Estrada. As part of that aforementioned semi-automated VAR system, FIFA produced a computer-generated image highlighting that Estrada’s right leg was — just barely — offside as Torres and Al-Sheeb collided when the free kick initially came in.
This is how close the offside ruling was against Ecuador 👀 pic.twitter.com/ALzB6sDZiq
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) November 20, 2022
It’s a call that was not obvious in real time, or even from most replay angles. Estrada was obscured by the collision between Al-Sheeb, Torres, and Qatar defender Ró-Ró. All eyes were understandably on Valencia, who was almost impossibly open.
Ultimately, the whole episode only served as a delay for Ecuador. Valencia would get on the scoresheet in the 16th minute, calmly converting a 16th minute penalty kick, and then heading a cross into the bottom corner in the 31st minute that survived a VAR check.
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