The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

I'm sure you've heard that popular aphorism. It's been handed down from generation to generation since the mid 1800's and is a good reminder that your actions (however well-intentioned) often have unintended consequences. It's an encouragement to think through all the possible outcomes of your actions and not hastily make decisions trusting all that is meant well, will end well.

VAR must have missed the memo. If you're not a fan of soccer or have been living under a rock since 2018, VAR or Video Assistant Referee has been one of the largest and most controversial additions to technology-assisted officiating on the world stage. The Cliff's Note version is that VAR can be used to assist the on-field referee in making sure the correct decision is made in four main areas: goals, penalty decisions, red cards, and mistaken identity. According to the International Football Association Board VAR is "a match official, with independent access to match footage, who may assist the referee only in the event of a ‘clear and obvious error’ or ‘serious missed incident’".

Those certainly sound like good intentions to me.

Enter the problem. VAR still gets it wrong, sometimes egregiously. I'm not even talking about the microscopic margins above (like, seriously how can you call that a clear and obvious error??). No, I'm talking about the scream-at-your-TV errors where even the announcers are exasperated and confused at how someone possibly arrived at that answer.

VAR still gets it wrong, sometimes egregiously.

This weekend in a disappointing 1-4 loss for Chicago Fire FC against Orlando City, much to the chagrin of my wife, one of these scream-at-your-TV scenarios happened. You can watch the match highlights here but let me explain. Down one goal in super rainy conditions, the Fire play the ball into the box. It redirected off an attacker's head and deflected off the outstretched arm of Orlando City's Daryl Dike. Chicago's Mauricio Pineda had to react quickly to the deflected ball which hits his chest and then his arm before being kicked into the back of the net for what appears to be a Chicago Fire goal. As all goals are, this is reviewed by VAR and eventually disallowed due to the handball by the Chicago Fire midfielder.

It's a surgical review, frame by frame, of one small part of the larger picture.

If you watch the highlight, yes, there is a handball by Chicago Fire player Mauricio Pineda. But only after the handball by the Orlando City player. That is the clear and obvious error of this play, the ball never would have gotten to Pineda had the original handball by Dike been called. The part that really grinds my gears is that only the portion of play that the Chicago Fire player committed an infraction went under video review. Herein lies the issue with VAR: how it's implemented. It's a surgical review, frame by frame, of one small part of the larger picture. That's not how soccer works. That's not how most sports work. That's definitely not how life works.

With the wide rollout of VAR in leagues around the world, situations like this happen week in and week out. And if you're in the States and couldn't care less about soccer don't worry, the virtual strike zone is coming to baseball and it's bringing the same horse carriage of problems. But the problem isn't the use of technology, I love seeing technology used to better protect the integrity of the game and ensure that we get it right. The problem is the nuance required in the application of the technology and the incomplete way that leaders have communicated, educated, and equipped officials (and fans and players!) to understand and use this tool. However well-intentioned it may be, VAR is creating as many problems and controversies as it solves.

The problem is the nuance required... and the incomplete way that leaders have communicated, educated, and equipped officials to understand and use this tool.

614 words in, here is my point: in leadership, it's not an option to rely on intentions. Not to bail you out of incomplete ideas. Not for poor communication. Not to buy time while a complete solution is discovered. And certainly not to keep faithful followers around if you don't quickly move beyond intentions to execution.

There was an apparent problem in the game and an attempt was made to fix it. Looking at one set of numbers, it seems to be working. According to ESPN in 2018-19 the Premier League estimated around 15% of game-changing calls were incorrect, down now to around 5%. But in sport, as in life, success is found in moving beyond statistics and intentions to effectively navigating the sliding scale of art and science. You can't review three to five sterilized frames of jogo bonito and call it good, however well-intentioned you are.

T.S. Elliot put it another way, "Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions." I think this is especially true in leadership. I am guilty far too often of counting on my team cutting me some slack because my intentions are good. I'm sure I'm not alone. So as I go about my week, looking forward to the changing of seasons and welcoming a new year in a few short months, I want to hold my self to a higher standard than VAR. In my conversations with others, when I come across challenges and when I have opportunities to try new things, I don't want to just look at the most recent three to five sterilized frames in front of me and decide how to act. I want to seek to understand the nuance and effectively navigate that sliding scale of art and science. How about you? What are your thoughts on VAR?

13-0. It's Good for the Game.

The U.S. women's national team opened up their World Cup tournament in record-breaking fashion beating Thailand 13-0. 13 goals in 90 (+3) minutes coming in bursts of 3 and sometimes 4 within a few minutes of each other. The crazy thing isn't that the score was 13-0 but that it could have easily been 15 or 17-0 if it wasn't for a number of amazing goal-line saves from the Thai defense and goalkeeper Sukanya Chor Charoenying, and a few big misses from the US attackers.

Any scoreline that is this one-sided is going to bring up questions of sportsmanship, what's fair, and the much more emotionally charged questions around what's right. I'll come right out to say that I agree with Alexi Lalas that there is nothing wrong with winning by as large of a margin as you possibly can in this tournament. Not only does goal differential have an impact on the table but this is the world championship, after all. There is quite literally no other place that is more high-stakes than the World Cup. It is the culmination of the world's most played and most talked about sport.

This is the culmination of the world's most played and most talked about sport.

The U.S. is a tournament favorite and it was clear through the match that they were in another class. Not taking anything away from Thailand, they played their hearts out for the whole match and I commented to my wife numerous times how impressive it was to watch the Thai keeper tirelessly throw her body across the goal, never giving up on a shot attempt. But the size, speed, and ball control of the U.S. dominated the pitch from the opening to the final whistle. They played with precision and passion for 90 minutes. Lung-busting runs from penalty box to penalty box (one ending in a brilliant goal from Megan Rapinoe), crisp passes over the top and in behind the defense, smart set plays from dead balls, and a thrilling amount of individual skill. Goals aside, it was an amazing example of how beautiful a game of well-executed soccer is to watch.

This is why I'm so proud of our Women's National Team and our Federation. Prioritizing opportunities for girls to be exposed to and play the game at a young age, having competitive programs at the high school and amateur club level to allow them to grow into the next phase, and having exciting club systems competing at the professional level is producing incredibly exciting football to watch; not to mention bringing world titles home! While the pursuit of equality never ends, it's clear that the U.S. has invested a lot of resources into the women's game from the grassroots level up, an investment from which many countries around the world are still a long way off.

It's a clear example of what can happen when opportunities for participation and competition are prioritized and investment is made to back those priorities up.

While I'll never be upset about any U.S. team winning convincingly in any world cup match, this is also an example of what can happen when opportunities for participation and competition are prioritized and investment is made to back those priorities up. I'm not just talking about the wins (though I'll take them), I'm talking about some of the best expression of the game of soccer being played. I'm proud of all 13 of their goals, for the example of what hardworking, committed, competitive women who are given opportunity can accomplish in this game, and for doing it on the world stage for others to see. That's what is fair. That's what is right.