The Football Ferns launched into celebrations last night after Jacqui Hand seemingly equalised for them against the Philippines in the FIFA World Cup match only for that party to be cut short moments later by the Video Assistant Referee.
It was a huge call - New Zealand went on to lose 1-0 to the Philippines and in doing so made Group A a tight race for the round of 16 - and one that replays showed came down to literally centimetres.
VAR technology had Hannah Wilkinson offside in the build-up to the goal, scratching the Football Ferns' equaliser and eventually denying them crucial points in their group.
So how did VAR make that call? And more so, how was Wilkinson ruled offside when her feet were well-behind the defenders?
Addressing the latter question first, FIFA’s laws of the game state a player will be deemed offside if "any part of the head, body or feet is nearer to the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent".
Unfortunately for Wilkinson and Football Ferns fans, the emphasis here is on the word "body".
When discussing the body of a potentially-offside player, the arms are excluded as they cannot be scored with however that boundary ends, in FIFA's terms, "at the bottom of the armpit".
It means the shoulder is considered part of the body and that is what VAR technology picked up as being offside when Wilkinson made her break to set up Hand's disallowed goal.
But how was it picked up?
FIFA beefed up their technology for Video Assistant Referees in time for the men's World Cup last year and now they've got it to a point where they can pick things up almost immediately after it happens with near pinpoint accuracy.
The new technology uses 12 dedicated tracking cameras which not only track the ball but also up to 29 data points of each individual player 50 times per second to calculate their exact position on the pitch. The 29 collected data points include all limbs and extremities that are relevant for making offside calls.
That information is then combined and used by AI to alert the VAR team [there's a lead referee and three assistants] of an offside incident which, after the offside is confirmed, is then visualised in a 3D animation to clearly communicate it to players and fans.
It means the right calls can be made down to closest margin - but it just so happened to go against the Ferns last night.
"Unfortunately, they're going to capture every pinkie toe or pinkie that is offside so it's just the nature of the tournament," Wilkinson said.
"I'm having a hard time believing I was but it's captured on camera so I can't argue it."
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