Messi may have spared Concacaf a huge VAR controversy

In the end, Inter Miami finally got a call that went their way, a VAR review that resulted in a handball on LAFC's Eddie Segura and a penalty kick.

Lionel Messi converted for his second goal and third goal contribution of a 3-1 victory in Leg 2, powering Miami to a 3-2 aggregate win in a thoroughly entertaining Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinal.

But if Miami had not scored that late goal, Concacaf could have found itself embroiled in a potentially explosive controversy involving the implementation of VAR protocols on Luis Suarez's disallowed goal.

The moment came in the 67th minute, only six minutes after Noah Allen had put Miami 2-1 in front on the evening and tied 2-2 on aggregate (but still behind on away goals).

Messi served an early diagonal ball to the top of the six-yard box, and as Hugo Lloris came off his line late, Suarez sent a flick-on header past the goalkeeper and the home crowd into a brief delirium, only for the linesman to raise his flag, judging Suarez had been offside.

Lines crossed?

Here's where the potential mistake comes: On replays, Suarez appeared to be marginally but clearly in front of the marking Segura. However, it was much less clear whether LAFC right back Ryan Hollingshead at the bottom of the screen would have been playing Suarez onside.

It took several minutes before the Concacaf broadcast released an image showing the triangulation lines that had been drawn by the VAR booth, apparently confirming Suarez had indeed been off.

But it's possible there was a problem with how the image was drawn.

According to this still shot above circulated online, it appears that Segura had been used as the reference point to confirm Suarez's offside position and not Hollingshead.

If you zoom in on the image, you will see a vertical blue line drawn to Segura's leading shoulder and a vertical red line drawn to Suarez's leading shoulder. It's not clear from the image whether a line drawn to Hollingshead's leading shoulder instead would have still confirmed Suarez offside.

Emails to Concacaf seeking clarification were not able to immediately returned. And MLS Multiplex was not able to confirm the validity of the image above. (Neither ViX or Fox Sports, the U.S. rightsholders, had access to a full match replay on their platforms at the time of publication.)

Miami's growing officiating ire

This was not the only big decision that went against the Herons over two Legs. In the first half of Leg 2, referee Cesar Arturo Ramos appeared originally to allow Messi's quickly taken free kick into an open goal to stand, only to then reverse course and force a rekick.

In Leg 1, referee Oshane Nation consulted a video replay to determine whether LAFC's Nathan Ordaz had struck at the head and neck area of Miami's Maxi Falcon, but ultimately only awarded a yellow card. Ordaz later scored in LAFC's 1-0 Leg 1 win.

But this decision would've trumped those two in terms of controversy potential, given the possibility of faulty implementation of VAR technology, at a moment that could have decided which team ultimately advanced.