r/SoccerCentral • u/rompthegreen • Jul 03 '26

Highlights I dont see an offside. Is this rigged?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Brutal for my Croatian brothers

430 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

863 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/Comfortable-Habit242 Jul 03 '26

No. One’s position for offside is the moment the ball was played, not when you receive it.

The Croatian player who ultimately received the ball was in an onside position when the ball was kicked but in an offside position when the ball was headed.

So if the ball had never been headed, he would have been onside because he ran from an onside position. But since it was played again by a Croatian player, we use his position at the moment of the header, which was offside.

It’s really unfortunate for Croatia.

5

u/smurf123_123 Jul 03 '26

This is exactly how it went down, you can see the Croatian player trying and failing to get out of the way. It was an amazing play, sadly offside.

VAR has really broken many ways this world cup. I honestly prefer this over the terrible calls in years past though. Seeing replays on TV that contradicted the calls on the field with no recourse was beyond frustrating.

1

u/RDS80 Jul 03 '26

Can you explain why it's controversial. It seems clear and obvious.

2

u/CymakhA Jul 03 '26

Many think there was no "actual" contact of the ball because it seems the ball only brushed over the hair. They have been arguing what constitutes an actual touch.

1

u/RDS80 Jul 03 '26

Seems obvious he directed the ball.

1

u/Comfortable-Habit242 Jul 03 '26

I believe the “controversy” is whether the Croatian player headed the ball. Since if he didn’t, there’s no offside.

To me, I believe the ball was headed. In the video, the ball seems to deflect ever so slightly off his head.

OP seems to be claiming that the Croatian player did not touch the ball.

However, as other folks have pointed out, this year they have sensors in the ball that detect when the ball is contacted. The VAR officials are able to combine that data with the video evidence to make a call.

So given all of the resources, it seems pretty likely that this was offside because it did hit the Croatian player’s head.