SYDNEY STAPLES: The Men’s World Cup just happened and the Women’s World Cup is coming up this summer. Which means that there are going to be a lot of new people watching soccer. If you’re one of those people that tune into soccer once every four years for the World Cup, you might need a rule refresher, and that I can help you with. One of those rules is offside, and while it’s hard to show you that on a field with nobody around me. I do have something I can show you instead. First, let’s establish teams. The X’s in red are on defense and the O’s in blue are on offense. Only the team with possession of the ball can be offsides. In this case, blue has possession and is attacking from right to left. Offside can only occur when a team is on the attacking side of the field. Now, imagine there’s a line across the field in-line with the last defender. Any attacking player that is beyond this line when the ball is played to them is offside.
CLAUDE TUYISHIMIRE: Most people don’t understand that offside happens once the ball’s kicked, not before. Once the ball is touched, that’s when it’s offside, not before.
STAPLES: It’s important to note that you’re only offside if you’re involved with the play. You can stand offside position all game long if you want and never get the ball. The rule is in place so that no one can cherry pick. If the ball had been played to this player, then there would not have been offside.
TUYISHIMIRE: They keep the players honest. We don’t want we don’t want 20 players in the goal already. I mean, so we’re not fun. You know, it keeps the game going, keeps everybody honest and disciplined. If you don’t have discipline, then the timing won’t work well.
STAPLES: To put it short, there always has to be a defender between an attacking player and a goalkeeper when the ball is played. But there are some exceptions. A player cannot be offside when the ball restarts from out of bounds on a goal kick, corner kick, throw in or when they are on their own defensive half of the field. While watching games, you should be able to catch offsides even before the referee does. In Syracuse, on a soccer field, I’m Sydney Staples, NCC News.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — The Men’s World Cup just happened and the Women’s World Cup is coming up this summer, which means that there are going to be a lot of new people watching soccer. If you are one of those people that tune into soccer once every four years for the World Cup, you might need a rule refresher.
One of those rules is offside.
It’s a rule in many sports like hockey, football, lacrosse, but it most commonly gets confused in soccer.
Offside can only occur when a team has possession and is on their attacking side of the field.
Any attacking player that is beyond the last defender when the ball is played to them is offside.
“Most people don’t understand that offside happens once the ball’s kicked, not before,” said soccer coach Claude Tuyishimire.
A player is only offside when they are involved in the play. A player can stand in an offside position all game long, and they will not be called for offside as long as the ball does not get played to them when they are standing in that position.
Tuyishimire said that the rule keeps players honest.
“We don’t want we don’t want 20 players in the goal already,” Tuyishimire said. “It keeps the game going [and] keeps everybody honest and disciplined.”
There always has to be a defender between an attacking player and a goalkeeper when the ball is played, but there are some exceptions.
A player cannot be offside when the ball restarts from out of bounds on a goal kick, corner kick, throw in or when they are on their own defensive half of the field.
