AboutJohn Cummings Expertise Do you have a call made by the referee in last week`s match puzzling you? Are you a referee who may not be certain that what was done was the right thing to do? I shall be glad to entertain any questions about officiating soccer. The more the players, coaches and supporters understand the referee and his/her decisions, the more fun we can have on the pitch.
Experience After coaching my son's travel team, I have been USSF State Referee, State Assessor, Assignor and State Instructor in addition to having been a college NISOA referee,a NISOA clinician, a NISOA assessor and a high school referee.
Answer First, I would suggest that you read Law 11 - piece by piece, section by section.
Then consider the law to be an "anti-cherry picking" law. In other words, it is meant to stop people from sitting near the goal waiting for a pass to take a quick shot on goal from close range.
To do this, the law does not allow an attacker to receive a pass from a teammate if that attacker is closer to the opponent's goal line than the second last opponent (usually means the keeper and one defender). The location is known as an offside position.
The time that the decision is made is when the ball is passed by the teammate of the attacker. This means that the attacker can be in an off-side position before or after the pass from the teammate, but not at the time of the pass.
Take a look at the video produced by USSF entitled, "Myths of the Game." It has an excellent and comprehensive explanation of Offside.
I hope this helps. If there are any other particular questions, please let me know.
