An ultimately unsatisfying day of sport
Saturday you could watch the start of the Tour de France in Florence, two Euro 2024 games and the T20 World Cup Final.
I followed most of them and watched the whole of Germany 2 Denmark 0.
The game was marred firstly by lightning that caused the withdrawal of both teams and secondly by some odd VAR decisions by Stuart Attwell.
Attwell was fast tracked as a referee but awarded a goal at Watford that was not. This seemed to affect his judgment but not his self confidence. I dread it when he is involved in a match.
The main problem with VAR is that the theatre of a game is spoiled as players do not whether to celebrate a goal.
A typical scenario is for the commentator to call a goal, the referee – in this case Michael Oliver – having been notified of some potential infringement, goes to the monitor and chalks the goal off.
This happened on several occasions and a key penalty was awarded for handball – Joachim Andersen was the offender – which seemed very harsh. In the past these “offences” might have gone unpunished and unnoticed but the game had better flow.
In the T20 cricket, South Africa only needed 26 off 25 balls but “choked” and so India won the competition.
It’s an interesting Tour de France this year, starting in Italy and finishing with a time trial (in Nice) for the first time since 1998.
Pogacar is the favourite but there are keen challengers like Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenpoel and viewers should watch out for the the exciting Van der Poel.
It’s a real test of endurance and one of my favourite sporting events in the year.
Much to savour too with England playing the All Blacks in Dunedin next Saturday, Wimbledon, the Open at Royal Troon and the Test Match versus the West Indies.
