Jun 142010
A few thoughts after watching a couple World Cup matches over the weekend:
- That English goalie better have a new identity on standby in case his team doesn’t make it to the next round.
- The Germans have come not just to play, but to conquer.
- Matches complete in just under two hours! I had no idea it was possible to watch a televised sporting event without losing an entire afternoon.
- On the other hand, American televised sports aren’t usually accompanied by a soundtrack of angry bees.
- I need somebody to explain the offsides rule to me using simple diagrams.
Offsides is very simple. If a player is further down the field than the last defender (excluding the goalie) when the ball is passed up to him, it’s offsides. They’ll show it often when it’s called, with the black line showing the deepest defender and the striker past it. If the striker makes no attempt to play the ball, it is usually not called.
And the thing that annoyed me most about the vuvuzelas (which I scoff at claims that it’s some South Africa tradition, seeing as how my parents bought me and my brothers one back in the early 70s at a Penn/Cornell football game, which was prior to this “tradition” having started) was in the Paraguay/Italy game, where the supreme underdog Paraguayans scored to take the lead from the defending World Cup champions, the buzz from those damn horns didn’t change. It didn’t get louder. It didn’t get quieter. The pitch or drone didn’t change. It was as if it was some bizarre form of tinnitus. Essentially, I think it’s that you’ve got thirty five thousand easily amused children every game who are just there to blow their horns and aren’t paying any attention whatsoever.
It took J and I, like, a half-hour to figure out the whole offsides thing, but the Wikipedia entry helped. Honest!
At the time the ball is kicked, passed, the play receiving the ball must be behind the last defender. Other wise he is offsides. See below:
(player ‘.O’ is about to pass the ball, ‘.’ to player ‘O’)
Good. No call from Ref
_______________________
| | | X | | |
| | |_____| | |
| | | |
| |_____________| |
| |
| |
| _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |
| O X <-last defender |
| X .O X |
| |
Bad. Ref will blow whistle
_______________________
| | | X | | |
| | |_____| | |
| | | |
| |_____________| |
| |
| |
| O_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |
| X <-last defender |
| X .O X |
| |
Legend:
_ _ _ _ _ Offside Line
X Defensive team
O Offensive team
. Ball