football

[SirMoby]

Originally Posted by Greenie

I don't follow soccer at all, so can someone please explain to me why you can't screen the goalie? USA had a goal called back yesterday because the goalie's view was obstructed by a USA player that was 20-30 feet away from him? WTF is that about?

You can screen the goalie all you want but that player was offsides.

Think about hockey where the puck has to cross the blue line before any players. It's similar in soccer but either the ball or 2 players from the opposing team have to be between you and the goal line.

Basically what happened was that guy ran in front of all the defenders and the ball so the only thing between him and the goal line was 1 player, the goalie.

Without offsides each team would just have one guy stand by the opposing teams goal and wait for a long kick.

This is also why Eddie Pope was running away from his goal instead of marking that guy that scored for Italy. For some reason he thought the defense was going to play an "offsides trap". When this happens basically all the defense moves forward and traps the other team in the offside spot.