Chapter 900: VAR Again?!

"What?! NO!"

The first one who rushed forward was, of course, Morita. He went straight to the linesman, complaining immediately about this decision.

"How in the hell did you decide that it was an offside?! I ran from behind, for fuck’s sake! Fuck! This is so ridiculous! They even knew that this was a clean goal!" He pointed at the two defenders who he passed through as the last Frankfurt players before he fought against the goalkeeper.

Those two just stared at each other awkwardly. While yes, they felt like Morita was still behind them, this decision helped their team and themselves to some extent, so of course, there was no need to confirm Morita’s words. No, they weren’t that stupid.

The other Schalke players also showed their dissatisfaction, being led by Omar Mascarell himself.

"Your decision doesn’t make sense!" The Spaniard faced the linesman and the referee together with his usual firm gaze. "You waited until everything was done and the ball went in before raising the flag. Are you trying to do something shady or what?"

"Yeah, your timing is the worst. You cannot punish us for throwing out our suspicion, right?" Sead Kolasinac, as the most senior member of the team, also narrowed his eyes at the linesman.

The referee was so flustered at the suspicion being thrown directly at him. In his career, this was probably the first time he faced such aggression from the players. It also didn’t help that Frohling started to badmouth the fourth referee on the sideline, complaining to the closest official on the bench.

"Fuck! This has been the sixth time we got fooled by the referee’s decision this season! Are you trying to play with us?! You think Schalke is just a paper tiger?! Come on! Tell it straight to my face! Give me a fucking red card, I dare you!"

All the Frankfurt players were so quiet on the pitch, watching the drama unfold with genuine interest. They knew that Schalke was one of the teams that never hesitated to throw their complaints, but seeing this directly for the first time was pure entertainment.

Hell, if they could, they would want to have popcorn to accompany them.

In the end, the referee finally decided to play it safe, checking on the VAR by himself. Oh, don’t get him wrong, he really wanted to send off whoever said outrageous things, like he had malicious intent or something like that, especially the head coach, who was so heated in how he used words to scold the fourth referee on the sideline.

Still, the offside decision itself was not that obvious at the first place, so it was important to check it first right now.

The whole stadium was tense at this moment, with the supporters in the stands praying that the goal was invalid. Of course, the one who was nervous the most here was Morita, as the boy was quite restless right now, changing his stare direction from the sky back to the referee and so on.

If the goal was valid, this would be his first goal of the season. However, more than that, this would also be the team’s first goal after being unable to get one in the last two games. This would be the one who broke the deadlock, enough to activate the team’s offense once again today.

That was why, even though the boy was not the most religious person in the world, at this point, he started to pray to whatever deity above.

’God... Kami-sama... Please, just this time, help me get this one!’

Unfortunately, it seemed that God of Football was not on his side right now. The referee saw it clearly, and with the help of those operators who made the helping line with the technology in the footage, it was revealed that Morita’s knee was slightly ahead of anyone else.

Yeah, the fucking knee, just three centimeters ahead of the race.

However, the rule was the rule here. Any part of his body, except for his hands, if it was ahead of any defender, would be deemed offside, and unfortunately, Morita got caught in this mess, so he became the victim of this strict rule.

"On-site decision! Koki Morita is slightly ahead of Evan Ndicka as Eintracht Frankfurt’s last defender! He is offside, and the goal is invalid!"

"OH! COME ON!"

The moment the decision stood, all the home supporters cheered, celebrating their narrow escape from death. Morita himself looked so lifeless while being consoled by his other teammates. At this point, no matter how dissatisfied they were, complaining would be inappropriate, especially when the incident was reviewed twice under so much scrutiny.

It was just unlucky for them, and they had to accept it.

After this, the game continued again, but it was clear that the disallowed goal affected Schalke’s mentality for a moment. Their move became a little bit slower, heavier than usual. As a result, Frankfurt’s players managed to take advantage of it a few times,

The first one came in the 17th minute. Somehow, Daichi Kamada managed to receive the ball in the pocket area without anyone guarding him, and he had all the time in the world to control it and turn around toward the goal.

As a result, the man shot it from outside the box, and while the power was lacking, the direction was difficult to handle. Not only that, it bounced once toward the ground, doubling the difficulty for the goalkeeper to handle.

It was fortunate that Higo managed to reach it first, denying the ball away from the goal.

Then, five minutes later, Andre Silva managed to sneak into the channel area once again, and this time, he managed to launch a shot first before Higo could get to it. Fortunately, this time, the man failed to put the ball into the back of the net, with him getting it wider to the left side of the goal.

Still, those two occasions were enough to make something snap inside Higo, as the goalkeeper finally shouted toward the defenders in front of him, "For fuck’s sake, Guys! What the hell are you doing here?!"