weemadando wrote:There was a reason it was the last thing on that list. I brought up this point because I saw what happened in hockey when offside was removed - and as I mentioned it wasn't the gamechanger everyone thought it would be. It's something that down the line I think could make an interesting trial in football, but things like video review are many orders of magnitude more important.
Offside was never removed from hockey. It was slightly modified to allow players to "touch-up." The two-line pass was removed at the same time, as part of the NHL's rule changes following the most recent lock-out.
For the record, I like the offside rule being in soccer, but they have to change their interpretation of the rule. It's just ridiculous to expect AR's to judge offside based on the furthest forward point on relevant players that can play the ball. It should just be called by the torso (or, equivalently, the furthest forward shoulder). That's easy to see, easy to judge, and doesn't move back and forth nearly as much as individual players' feet while running (or even heads, as was relevant in the Italy-Slovakia game). That interpretation is just ridiculous, conflicts with what everyone thinks of when they hear "offside" because when they're asked if players are ofside or not they always just judge by the torso, and is brutal on assistant referees who are stuck trying to monitor it.
Incidentally, I was kind of rooting for Japan yesterday because I thought they were underdogs, but damn are they a dirty team. They go at people late, constantly (think of what Mexico does inside of 5 minutes, but without quite as much force, and continuously throughout the match), and then they dive. All the time. They don't do the "rolling in agony" thing, but if you touch them they will fall down. Ball is right there? Ball is nowhere close to you? Doesn't matter. They'll flop like fish in a sushi restaurant. They must be absolutely infuriating to play against--particularly because their free kicks are
lethal judging by what I saw yesterday. Honda's shot probably should've been stopped (the goalkeeper got a little wrong-footed and VERY nearly stopped it, anyway), but you've still got to respect a team that puts in
two free kicks in the same game from 30+ yards. So basically they're cheap-shot artists who flop and then are very dangerous on the ensuing free kicks. In fairness, the two shots they scored on were earned by legitimate fouls, but teams that play them from now on will have to have chats about the Japanese tactics and be prepared for it.
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