If you’re watching the 2010 World Cup, and happened to catch the Mexico – South Africa game, you may remember a goal getting called back with an offsides call. The Announcers, perhaps temporarily forgetting the rule, were outraged at the missed call by the refs, claiming “how could he be offside, there’s a defender on the goal line”, “what an awful decision, they should be one nil ahead”.
Well, if you take a look at the rule book, you’ll see that:
“A player is in an offside position if: he is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent.”
Since the South African goalie left his line, there was only one defender behind him, therefore leaving the Mexican player in an offside position. It’s ok, it happens, we won’t hold it against them 🙂 Great to see a ref and linesman making the right call on a big time stage.
loosers!