The World Cup 2018 has kicked off and the ambassador of SportPesa, Doctor Khumalo is in the news for many reasons. He is a great talent at predicting the outcome of the games way ahead they take place. Surely, the fans can use this genius to predict the results of games like he did in the case of Argentina and Croatia. And while you can always try out new games to bet on with Betin Kenya, you can be sure that there is a lot to bank upon on Argentina – they are a good side in spite of their poor showing this time round.
Where did Argentina go wrong?
Dr. Khumalo evaluated the sides of both Croatia and Argentina for the match on June 21. He didn’t put much faith on Messi who missed a penalty in the match with Iceland which ended in a draw. Khumalo had put his trust on Croatia playing the Group D fixture and he turned out to be right more than ever.
Croatia saw their way out of the group fixtures for the first time beating Argentina by 3 goals. The fans of Argentina were in for a surprise and could believe Croatia won by such a huge margin.
Doctor Khumalo has also given his opinion about the trends in the 2018 World Cup. The tournament has brought in many technologies to improve the game and the standards of refereeing. Khumalo spoke about the new VAR system introduced which promises to help the referees make right decisions in case they missed what happened on the field.
He said that the VAR is a new thing to South Africans and the referees. Many of the referees forget that they now have a technology which can be used if they miss an incident.
The VAR stands for Video Assistant Referee which works on the same approach like third umpire decision in the game of cricket. It is a video technology that has been brought in to help refereeing decisions.
There is a video room where four referees are dedicatedly watching live telecast of the game on multiple screens. On the field the action is caught by 33 cameras placed at different angles and 2 offside cameras- the referees get to view the players and the game from every possible direction.
The on field referee has a microphone attached to his ear for communicating with the referees in the video room. In case he missed an incident he raises his arm to signal the need of VAR assistance. The referees then watch the video replay and help the on field referee make his decision.
The VAR is not to be used for trivial decisions. It is reserved only for game changing situations involving a penalty, goal, red card and incidents of mistaken identity. According to Doctor Khumalo, referees cannot expect the VAR to call on missed actions and stop the game. The on field referee should make the first call and ask for assistance from the VAR.
