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Auckland FC snatch dramatic late equaliser against Adelaide after VAR drama
Lee Gagliardi, AAP • January 23rd, 2025 8:00 am
Photo: Photosport
Auckland FC coach Steve Corica believes his side would have taken all three points against Adelaide United if a late VAR call had fallen in his team's favour in their dramatic A-league Men's 2-2 draw.
VAR had a decisive influence on Wednesday's table-topping clash at Coopers Stadium, making two interventions in the second half of a match that leaves the Reds still a point clear of the New Zealand outfit atop the ladder.
The first came when Auckland's Neydor Moreno broke the deadlock on 64 minutes within seconds of coming on, but the biggest call came when Reds' substitute Archie Goodwin made it 1-1 on 81 minutes.
United teammate and fellow substitute Yaya Dukuly had burst past Callan Elliot who fell as Dukuly pulled the Auckland defender's shirt, before squaring for the 20-year-old to score.
Referee Alex King was called over by VAR and reviewed the footage before allowing the goal to stand, judging the contact to be minimal.
"I think Callan was in front of the boy (Dukuly) so there's no reason for him to go down, there was no reason for him to fall over," said Corica.
"He was in front, so there was a bit of a pull of the shirt, maybe even a little clip, but obviously VAR looked at it and it didn't go our way that one, but for me that shouldn't have been a goal and we probably would have went close to winning the game."
Reds coach Carl Veart disagreed.
Photo: AAP
"I find it interesting how VAR can step in there when the referee and the linesman all say it's fine. Is that a clear and obvious foul?" he said.
"Why does VAR even step in there? Yes, there's a bit of contact, but if you're going to pay that then I think we're going to have 20 penalties every time there's a corner because there's more shirt pulling and blocking than that (incident)."
Goodwin went on to score again in the 95th minute for what looked sure to be an Adelaide winner, but Logan Rogerson made it 2-2 in the 100th minute, heading in a corner from Francis De Vries.
It left Adelaide still a point clear at the top of the table over the New Zealand side.
At least the two coaches agreed over the earlier VAR call on Moreno's goal.
The Colombian had been released by Jake Brimmer, who had also only been on the field for less than a minute, and was challenged by Adelaide defenders Bart Vriends and Dylan Pierias just outside the Reds' penalty area.
Vriends' sliding tackle saw the ball ricochet off his teammate and fall perfectly for Moreno who tucked his shot neatly past Ethan Cox.
The referee's assistant raised the flag and VAR also reviewed the footage which confirmed there was no offside and that the ball had struck the arm of Pierias and not Moreno following the challenge from Vriends.
"For our goal, I don't think there was any decision to be made," Corica said.
"He wasn't offside, he didn't handball, so I'm not even sure what they were actually looking at, at the time. I think they made the right decision there."
The Reds' coach also felt the intervention was not necessary and had no complaints the goal was allowed to stand.
"There was no issue with that," Veart said.
"There was no reason for that (VAR check). That should have been done fairly quick actually. You could see there was no handball there."
