The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) and the Bundesliga are anything but a success story at the moment. After the league found three wrong decisions last week, the opening game of LASK in the new Linz stadium once morest Austria Lustenau was decided by an extremely controversial decision. The Vorarlbergers were rightly extremely upset, and LASK trainer Dietmar Kühbauer was also surprised at the penalty whistle.
“Everyone saw that it was a completely wrong decision,” Lustenau coach Markus Mader summed up the situation in the 92nd minute. Florian Flecker fell in heavy rain in the penalty area, only then did Lustenau’s Cem Türkmen hit the “Joker” from Linz. “Honestly, I don’t have to say anything regarding it. I go to the ball, stop it beforehand and see it coming. It feels like it’s already on the ground, kicks me and demands a penalty. For me, the pictures speak for themselves,” said Türkmen his view.
However, referee Harald Lechner immediately decided on a penalty and, following a conversation with VAR Christian-Petru Ciochirca, decided not to watch the scene once more on the TV screen. This, in turn, also met with incomprehension from ex-ÖFB team player and Sky expert Marc Janko. “What bothers me is that as a referee you don’t go out and see it in the 90th minute.” Mader felt like he was in the wrong movie.
“Even though a club invests a lot of money in equipment and cameras, such bad decisions happen that shouldn’t actually happen in modern football. It’s amateurish and sad that such decisions decide games in favor of or once morest teams,” said Lustenau’s coach. He seemed composed despite the bitter end of the game. “I see it as a debut gift for LASK on the occasion of the opening, but not from us, but from someone else.” He refrained from arguing with referee Lechner. “It’s no use, in the end the result won’t be taken back.”
Kühbauer and his team were unlucky in the 1-1 draw in Ried last week when Ried defender Julian Turi failed to award a penalty in a handball in the penalty area. “Last week we were the idiots, this time we’re the beneficiaries,” said the Burgenlander. It’s a tiresome topic that there are such decisions that are then discussed more than the game itself. “I hope it gets better in terms of football,” emphasized the LASK coach.
Marin Ljubicic was able to advance to the match winner with the only goal in the 94th minute with a penalty converted in Panenka-style. “We wanted to get a threesome, but I don’t care that it happened with a 911,” emphasized Kühbauer. A certain tension due to the first game in the new Raiffeisen Arena was certainly one of the reasons for a mixed performance over long stretches. “But we can’t just see what was bad. We were really good at the back and we can be quite satisfied with seven points from three games,” summed up the 51-year-old.
With 34 points, the third-placed people from Linz are sure to take part in the master group. “We now want to get as many points as possible and then we’ll see what’s in the championship group,” said Kühbauer. As midfielder Peter Michorl put it, his players felt “a huge rucksack” following their successful debut. The three points were important. “But we have to talk regarding the performance,” the 27-year-old was aware.
That was not the case with the Lustenauers following a strong performance. “Everyone can confirm that we deserve a point. We may go home with our heads hanging and the players are bruised because it was unfair, but we can be proud of the performance, we even dominated in the second half and almost nothing is allowed,” was Mader’s conclusion. His team lost for the 2nd time in the 3rd game in the spring. The upper play-off thus moved a little more into the distance for the eighth.
