Offside Question

[soccerman]

I have question.
When team A takes a corner kick or a free kick near the goal (not near enough to warrant a wall) why doesn't team B send all its defenders to midfield. The kick taker can't kick the ball to himself and anyone else in the attacking half of the field would be offside. You might be in trouble if one of the offensive players is significantly faster than all of the defenders, but generally it seems like it would work.

[AreliusIV]

The teammate to whom the kicker passes the ball only needs to be level with the kicker, regardless of where the defenders are.

Hence, in this scenario, all the defenders will defend only as high as the kicker.

One is only offside if he/she is further ahead of the player who passes the ball (and there is no other defender between them and the goal).

If the defenders push up equal with the kicker, they risk leaving a lot of open space behind them into which the offense can run on to the free kick and take on the keeper.

To minimize the space into which the offense can run, they generally don’t push up to be equal with the kicker.

[soccerman]

Ther whole reason I asked this question is I saw offside called on a corner kick the other day (not the short corner an honest to goodness corner kick). How would that be possible.

[AreliusIV]

I don’t see how that could happen because the rule states that the player to whom a ball is passed only needs to be level with the player that passes the ball. On a corner kick, you can’t be further ahead of a ball that is kicked from the corner.

I suspect that something else was involved, i.e.; the ball ricocheted off another offensive player and toward a third offensive player and in the interim the defenders pushed forward.

[I_Believe_In_Kreis]

Originally Posted by soccerman

How would that be possible.

1. What you saw was in fact a foul that just happened to be near the corner (although it would still be hard to be offsides in that situation).
2. More likely, there was a foul committed by an attacker while the corner was in flight and the linesman made the call. The raised flag and the awarding of the ball to the defense would look similar to an offsides call. Remember, in soccer the referee does not have to indicate the type of infraction (and usually won't) - he simply indicates the type of kick (direct or indirect) and whose possession.

[AreliusIV]

Originally Posted by I_Believe_In_Kreis

More likely, there was a foul committed by an attacker while the corner was in flight and the linesman made the call.

This is the type of situation/infraction that you will frequently see.

[AreliusIV]

By the way, an interesting tidbit on the offside rule is that you can’t be offside in your own half. The offside rule only takes effects when you pass the midfield line.

So, let’s say all of the defenders have pushed up for a corner. The team on defense takes control of the ball and passes it out to a player that is behind all of the defenders. As long as that player who receives the pass hasn’t crossed the midfield line, he/she isn’t offside. But, if he/she was behind all the defenders AND beyond the midfield line, he/she will be flagged offside.

[prk166]

Since we're on the topic. It's been awhile since I brushed up on these rules but if a player directly recieves a throw-in, they can not be offisde, correct?

[AreliusIV]

Correct. This is another interesting tidbit. A player can receive a throw-in behind all of the defenders and not be offside. At times the defenders forget about this rule and the offensive player sneaks in behind the defenders and has an advantage.

[Rover]

Just to clarify for this thread, there is no offside directly from a corner kick. That should answer the original question, at least about corner kicks.

For the record, this is what Law 11 of the Laws of the Game says about exceptions to the offside rule:

There is no offside offence if a player receives the ball directly from:

* a goal kick or
* a throw-in or
* a corner kick

I've not personally seen the goal kick exception exploited, probably because it's tough to get the ball far enough down the field to clear the last defender anyway. The throw-n exception is more common, and can be very effective.

Now, I'll bet some of you have seen offside called in a corner kick situation. So have I, but the improtant word in the above quote is "directly." Once the ball starts bouncing off players, the exception ends and offside is back in play.