In the UEFA Nations League final, which ended in the early hours of this morning, France won the championship with Mbappe's winning goal to beat Spain 2-1! However, it is precisely because the penalty for this goal has become the focus of the game, and the offside penalty for a while has once again aroused the discussion of fans!
In the 79th minute of the second half, France's Theo sent a straight pass, Mbappe stood in an offside position at the moment of passing, and Spanish defender Eric Garcia touched the ball in the middle of the tackle, but despite changing the trajectory of the ball, Mbappe still followed into the box to complete the goal, and the referee on duty, Anthony Taylor, signaled that the goal was valid after communicating with VAR.
So obvious offside, the referee is the famous "blind monk" Taylor, many fans have said that VAR is blind again?! Not only the fans, but also the coaches, players and many media are angrily criticizing Taylor for making such irresponsible decisions, and some even complained about the VAR's marking technique.
So is this ball really offside? If you look at the original text of Chapter 11 of the IFAB Football Rules for the 2021/22 season, which is currently executed in various football competitions, it seems that this is really a good goal.
Swipe up to see translations
A player on the same team is in an offside position the moment a player passes or touches the ball, and the player then participates in the actual game in the following way before being awarded an offside foul:
- By visibly blocking the opposing player's view, to prevent the opposing player from handling the ball, or to affect their ability to handle the ball, or
- Compete with opposing players for the ball, or
- There is an obvious attempt to touch the incoming ball in the vicinity, and the move affects the opposing player, or
- Make obvious moves that affect the opponent's ability to handle the ball.
- The ball bounces or refracts from goalposts, crossbars, match officers or opposing players.
- The ball comes from any opposing player who intends to save the ball.
A player in an offside position who receives the ball after the opposing player intentionally touches the ball (including intentional handball) (except for any member of the opposing team saving the ball) is not considered to have gained benefits.
"Save" means any part of a player's body other than his hand/arm (other than the goalkeeper's own penalty area) that blocks or attempts to block a ball that is about to enter the goal or is extremely close to the goal.
Through this explanation, after the opposing player touches the ball, in addition to the other party intentionally touching the ball, the opposing player saves the ball (including the goalkeeper saves) and passively touches the ball and touches the ball are offside profits, and the referee should award offside fouls.
So, for Mbappe's goal this morning, the focus of our discussion may shift to whether Garcia "intentionally touched the ball" or "saved the ball". In fact, it seems that it is not difficult to understand, in the official explanation of "saving the ball" refers to blocking or trying to prevent the ball that will enter the goal or is very close to the goal, obviously Garcia's touch is still far from the goal...
The defending player moves to the ball, and actively touches the ball when the body is controllable and has enough time, choice, and enough space and distance to handle the ball, which is regarded as "active touching", in which case the attacking side is not an offside profit, just like Garcia's foot "unblocked" this morning.
The most impressive thing about this situation is that in the group stage between Germany and South Korea in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Kroos's "oolong assist" in the penalty area is a classic case under this rule.
If you look at the rules in this way, Mbappe's goal today should be nothing wrong, but this still arouses the opinions of many players about the decision of the game, especially the formulation of offside rules. So in the future, will there be further improvements in offside penalties? Perhaps this is also the pace of the growth of world football.