The Brazilian Rafael Traci, in charge of the VAR in the controversial rematch between River and Vélez for the round of 16 of the Copa Libertadores, had just served a suspension in his country for poor performance in the Inter de Porto Alegre-Botafogo match, last 19 of June.
The chronicles of the Brazilian press reflect that that day Traci “disastrously commanded the VAR” in the match that Botafogo won 3-2 at the Beira-Río stadium in Porto Alegre. In a procedure similar to that of Wednesday night at the Monumental, the person in charge of the VAR influenced the referee to collect a penalty in favor of Inter and expel a rival defender, decisions that caused much controversy despite the review of the images.
The day after the match in Porto Alegre, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) removed Traci from the appointment of the classic between São Paulo and Palmeiras and announced the opening of a file to “evaluate his technical performance” at Inter-Botafogo.
Traci and her compatriot Braulio Machado (AVAR) were decisive for Chilean referee Roberto Tobar to reverse the sanction of a goal scored by River striker Matías Suárez in the 78th minute when the match with Vélez was tied without goals. The two Brazilian judges warned the main referee about a possible hand by Suárez, which even the Chilean was not convinced to sanction while he reviewed the play over and over again in front of the monitor and talked with his cabin assistants.
“He hits the hand, yes. Look how the striker heads, hits his arm and changes the direction (of the ball),” was Machado’s last statement that made Tobar back down in his decision to validate the goal. After that dialogue, the referee returned to the field of play, pointing his left arm along the way to indicate the infraction to the spectators and scored a free kick for Vélez. With that goal from Suárez, River would have achieved the 1-0 needed to take the definition of the series to penalties after losing by the same result in Liniers, a week ago.