What is goalline technology? How Sweden penalty against USWNT was allowed
The USWNT are out of the Women’s World Cup after a dramatic penalty shootout defeat to Sweden.
It was Lina Hurtig, via goalline technology, who netted the winning penalty with her kick adjudged to have crossed the line when Alyssa Naeher thought she had kept it out.
Nathalie Bjorn and Rebecka Blomqvist of Sweden and Megan Rapinoe and Sophia Smith all missed in regulation before Kelley O’Hara missed the seventh kick for the U.S.
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Hurtig then stepped up to score, by millimetres, to send the defending champions home.
Sweden are now through to face Japan in the last eight.
Here’s what happened and how goalline technology works…
With scores still level in the shootout, O’Hara’s miss via the right-hand post gave Hurtig the opportunity to send Sweden through with Sweden’s second sudden-death kick.
She struck her kick at goal only for goalkeeper Naeher to get a hand to the ball before it spun back towards goal.
Naeher grasped to keep it out at the second attempt, but goalline technology showed that the ball — by a matter of millimetres — had indeed crossed the line, sparking jubilant scenes for Sweden and despair for the U.S.
Goalline technology (GLT) has been a staple of football ever since it was introduced back in 2014. It is now used routinely across the world game, including at the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
GLT determines whether the whole of the ball has crossed the line to confirm whether a goal should stand or not.
Even #SWE can’t believe how close it was…
Read on theathletic.com
