The first competition of the Paris Olympics was one to remember—and not exactly for good reason.
Though the opening ceremony is Friday, Argentina and Morocco had the honors of kicking off the Games with a men's soccer match Wednesday. For 90 minutes, the game was a fairly conventional one that the Moroccans led 2–1. Then, everything went haywire.
First, the game's referees put an astounding 15 minutes of stoppage time on the clock—allowing the Argentinians to apparently tie the game 2–2 at the death. Vehement protests from Morocco's fans led the referees to suspend the game after 16 minutes of stoppage time.
During the lengthy stoppage—which lasted in excess of an hour and a half—the officials went to video review and ruled Argentina midfielder Cristian Medina's equalizer offside.
ARGENTINE TV has just released these images. Amione in an offside position when Otamendi makes the first point of contact on his shot.
— Nico Cantor (@Nicocantor1) July 24, 2024
This is straight from VAR, I would imagine world feed. pic.twitter.com/RQ25BWpayE
Finally, the game was re-started without fans and the Moroccans finished out the victory.
Got all that?
INCREDIBLE scenes at #Paris2024 Olympics soccer.
— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) July 24, 2024
▶️ Morocco led Argentina 2-1
▶️ 15 minutes added
▶️ Argentina equalise 90+16
▶️ Morocco fans protest + game suspended
▶️ 90 mins later, goal ruled out by VAR for offside
▶️ Game just resumed for final 3 mins
▶️ FT 2-1 Morocco
This is only day one of the competition, if you can believe it. As is often the case when the entire world sports community gets together, there figures to be a lot of chicanery still to come.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Argentina-Morocco Olympic Men's Soccer Ends in Chaos After Lengthy Delay, VAR Ruling.
