The VAR, crucial in the first games of the South American Qualifiers

Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez, Arturo Vidal and many other world soccer stars are competing in the South American Qualifiers. But they were not the main protagonists of this double date. The crucial role was stolen by the VAR- Video Assistant Referee- and the referees who manage it.

On the second date played yesterday, October 13, in the meeting of the Bolivian national team against Argentina, the match was stopped for more than 3 minutes after Joaquín Correa scored the second goal for Argentina. In the game between Chile and Colombia in Santiago de Chile the VAR should have warned that the punch that James Rodríguez provided to Alexis Sánchez deserves a red card.

Venezuela and Paraguay saw their game stopped for almost 5 minutes after Venezuela scored the first goal of the match, which was later annulled because the player touched the ball with his hand. At the end of this game, the referee pointed out a non-existent penalty in favor of Venezuela but the VAR never called him to review the play. The penalty was stopped by Paraguayan goalkeeper Anthony Silva.

In the match between Ecuador and Uruguay even Edinson Cavani from Manchester United was surprised by the use of the VAR. In this game, referee Wilmar Roldán relied on the VAR to cancel three goals and sanction a penalty. For all the time the game was delayed, a total of 105 minutes were played.

And in the last gmae of the day, played in Lima between Peru and Brazil, VAR was also the protagonist. First, it took more than 2 minutes to review the penalty from Carlos Zambrano to Neymar and later it took more than 3 minutes to review a hit on the face from Zambrano to Richarlison, which ended with the expulsion of the center back.