>>Argentinean referee give off-sided goal in spite of linesman's insistent up-flag. I'm beginning thinking french trainer is right. He had said "Somebodies help Swiss team"
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>>I smell bad... Blatter's shield on the Swiss team.
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>I don't know the play in question, but I'm hoping you can teach me a little on the offside rule?
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>At the moment Player A takes a shot, Player B is offside. The ball goes directly into the goal without being touched by anybody. Is it still offside?
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PMFJI -- no. There is a distinction between being offside, which is a foul, and merely being in an offside position. If you are in an offside position (i.e. behind the second to last defender AT THE MOMENT THE BALL IS STRUCK BY A TEAMMATE) but not participating in the play, offside should not be called. On this play the attacking Swiss player was clearly in an offside position and when he received the pass, thus "participating in the play," the assistant (sideline) referee correctly popped his flag, signalling offside. The South Korean players, with the exception of the goalkeeper, stopped playing. Technically this was a mistake on their part because the center referee had not blown his whistle, and ultimately ALL calls are the responsibility of the center ref. But I don't blame them for thinking the play was over. It was that obvious.

The commentators on ESPN immediately criticized the call, and even speculated the referee was going to change it (disallowing the goal) after conferring with his AR, but one of them got a finer point of the offside rule wrong. He said I guess the referee thought he saw the ball deflect off the defender's foot. That does not change the call. For the offside call to be negated a defender has to CONTROL the ball, not just touch it.

I go to at least one soccer conference a year and there is usually a session for referees on offside specifically. At the last one the speaker showed a video with a series of plays, asking the audience whether or not offside should have been called. Often the audience was nearly split. And these are experienced referees.

The parents, they're the ones who know the rule cold (rolling eyes madly), even though most of them -- the American born ones, anyway -- don't understand the rule. "Offside, offside!" they'll yell, even when it isn't. The only thing that comes close to it -- and again they don't understand the rule -- is "Hand ball! Didn't you see that?!"