04/26/24
November 29, 2022
SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
When Dest started his run and McKennie struck the service to him, the Iran center backs looked like they were still just a bit behind Dest. Even though Dest had outpaced his own defender, the position of the other backs gave him the slight onside margin he needed.
The position of the receiving player at the moment the ball is struck is the critical factor.
The AR was right there running with Dest and had a good view of the line.
I saw one or two goals in other matches where the flag didn't go up when it seemed as though it should have and there was no VAR review.
One of the reasons that a lot of kids drop out of youth soccer after they go from U-10 up to U-12 (where they get introduced to the offsides rule) is that the way offsides is coached and reffed at that level often becomes one big WTF.
posted by beaverboard at 04:58 PM on November 29, 2022
Speaking of the way youth soccer is reffed, does anyone else have the experience of refs being real sticklers about how the ball is thrown in. I recall refs frequently calling for a throw-in do-over because one foot came off the ground or because the ball went over a shoulder instead of straight over the head. All the more interesting to me, as I can't help but notice pro footballers getting away with these same throws. To this day, I'm not actually sure if those throws were actually against the rules or if the leagues were just trying to make some point via refereeing.
posted by bender at 10:05 PM on November 30, 2022
Yes, exactly right, youth soccer refs are very tough on throw in procedure. They enforce everything you mentioned.
Understandable for them to want to help teach the rules of the game during live play, but it gets kids freaked out about doing throw ins.
So they won't do hurry up throw ins when it would be useful to do so. And if the thrower is worried about getting called for a violation, their tendency is to stay rooted to the spot after completing the throw in rather than quickly rejoining the flow of play.
posted by beaverboard at 02:21 AM on December 01, 2022
Thanks, beaverboard.
posted by bender at 02:36 PM on December 01, 2022
Every time I think I have a handle on the offside rule in soccer, something happens that brings me back to the reality that I don't have a clue about anything soccer related. For the first USA goal against Iran, wasn't the American player that head butted the ball to the scorer waaaay ahead of the ball and behind all of the Iranian defenders? Isn't that considered to be offside? Apparently not since the goal didn't get reversed for offside.