Offside? USA's goal
Discussion
zaktoo said:
OK thanks. Ball was played forward as the receiver ran on to it. I certainly thought offside immediately, but I am easily confused by the offside rule at times, TBH ;-)
Normally, for a player to be 'onside', the ball needs to be played to him when he has a defender between him and the goal keeper at the time when the pass is played. Being level with a defender deems the recipient of the ball to be 'onside' also.
In the US' goal, the point was that the player who passed the ball did so to a teammate who was ahead of the defenders, but was also behind the ball when the ball was played i.e. at the commencement of the pass.
In both cases, it isnt about where people are when they receive the ball.
It is a mistake that linesmen or "referees' assistants" make regularly, and they are meant to know the rules thoroughly.
Another problem is interpreting 'being level with the defender'. Your feet may be level BUT if the attacker's chest is ahead of the defender's torso, he will be deemed offside, even where the feet are level. In the blink of an eye, a defender running away with an arm raised to alert the ref or linesman, will create a large gap between himself and an attacker, who is leaning forward to run on the goal. The footy authorities were meant to give "the benefit of the doubt" to the attacker in those circumstances.
Well, as Peter Crouch found out in the Cup Final last month v West Ham, it also pays if the attacker is smaller than the defender, as in his case, where it was - as ever - the other way round, the attacker gets little or no advantage
It was a good goal, ref! zaktoo said:
I'm confused - why wasn't there the merest hint of offside to the USA's opening goal today? As far as I could see, the receiver of the pass was ahead of all Ghanaian defenders, although behind the passing USA player. Is this therefore not offside?
You can not be offside if you are behind the ball, the question of being the wrong side of the defenders does not apply. In today's match, Dempsey was clearly behind both the ball and the player making the pass, so no, he was not offside.
Edited by fozzi on Thursday 22 June 17:47
What's the confusion here then?
The player receiving the pass must be behind or level to the last defender upon the pass being made. In dempsey's case he was on-side by a good couple of feet at least.
where it gets confusing is the newer rulings on interfering with play. In the Brazil match Ronaldo was "off-side" when the pass was made to Robinho from Ronaldinho but as it wasn't made to him or even in his direction he wasn't off-side. by the time the ball was headed to him some 1 sec later the Japanese had moved back towards goal and made him on-side. Stupid ruling which causes so much confusion.
The player receiving the pass must be behind or level to the last defender upon the pass being made. In dempsey's case he was on-side by a good couple of feet at least.
where it gets confusing is the newer rulings on interfering with play. In the Brazil match Ronaldo was "off-side" when the pass was made to Robinho from Ronaldinho but as it wasn't made to him or even in his direction he wasn't off-side. by the time the ball was headed to him some 1 sec later the Japanese had moved back towards goal and made him on-side. Stupid ruling which causes so much confusion.
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