(Untitled)

[cyberduck]

So, one thing that has surprised me more than almost anything else in this World Cup is how many people I knew that have mentioned that they've enjoyed or tried to enjoy what they've seen of the games, but were confused by some aspects of the game. More importantly, parts of the game that I've grown so accustomed to that it never occurred to me it

Comments

[llachglin]

It never occurred to me that Americans wouldn't know the difference between a corner kick, a goal kick, and a throw-in. But that's because I played soccer as a kid (as did most people my age or younger as far as I can tell.)

To me, it's the offside rule that can be confusing, but only because it's about where the defender is when a pass is made. So a charging player can be past the last defender (or the keeper and another defender) and still not be offside, so long as they were not offside when the previous player touched the ball. I think anyway. Also, refs seem to get this wrong as often as not, and I wonder if a technology to automatically detect this would be workable, so long as it didn't slow down play.

Also, I think refs should have to provide a reason for calling a goal back, even if they're wrong. Just calling it back because they want to or because they belatedly realized that their previous call was wrong seems unsporting to me.

Finally, USA! USA! USA!

[cyberduck]

It took me a few games to notice the pattern of when they threw-in versus kicked in, though the goal-kick seems obvious enough.

Off-sides is a big ol' fur ball of crazy. In addition to what you mentioned (which is correct AFAIK), there are all kinds of exception cases. For instance, you can't ever be off-sides on a throw-in and you stop being off-sides the second it touches an enemy player (so if you crossed the line before your guy kicked, but between that point and your interaction with the ball it hits an opponent, you're not offsides). It's a hard one to call as a ref', because in addition to their limited field-of-view, they effectively have to be able to look at both where your feet are, and where the ball is at the same time. Refs who can get this call right more-often-than-not are super-awesome-badasses in my book.

There's a lot of talk every year about implementing technology solutions or process changes. As much as I'm loathe to tinker with the system, it does kill me a little when I see a ref f' up a call.

[chapel_of_words]

Off-sides always seemed to comport with other "free flow" games that don't have "plays" and aren't basketball. For example offsides in hockey or lacrosse is very similar as that for soccer. Cricket? Now that's fucked up

[jennlyle]

I get scared whenever World Cup comes on. You see, usually my husband is a very mild mannered, gentle man. He's calm, relaxed, and relaxing to be around. Until World Cup. Then he turns into a raving maniac. So, rather than watching the games, I've been hiding out in the computer room. With the cats. A tad frightened. I peek in, to make sure there are no heavy objects and break-ables near the television. I double check the warranty on the television to figure out how to explain away 'accidently' chucking it out the window (its 40" screen).