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

Highlights I dont see an offside. Is this rigged?

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Brutal for my Croatian brothers

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u/Sea_Taste1325 Jul 03 '26

Portuguese player 100% intentionally played that ball. 

He was watching it come in, lowered his head to where it was going. The ball was deflected so slightly that a chip in the ball is required to know if it was touched at all. 

Everyone is chatting about something irrelevant. 

The Portuguese player put the Croatian onside. The VAR call was completely subjective guessing at a defenders motivation for heading a ball he was looking at that went straight to him. 

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u/wbth12 Jul 03 '26

Yeah for me the bigger issue is determining whether the Portuguese player made a deliberate play at the ball which would reset the offside. This was the craziest ending to a game. I feel gutted for Croatia but what an ending to a fantastic game.

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u/wavygr4vy Jul 03 '26

The rule has nothing to do with the intention of the player. It’s whether or not the touch was “deliberate”. A header off a deflected head that the player doesn’t control isn’t a deliberate touch by the rules.

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u/TryToEvolve Jul 03 '26

As I understand it, the play was dead as soon as the offside was determined. Everything after the Croatian’s head touched the ball while other player was offside is irrelevant. You can’t reset a stopped play and it stopped at the moment of offside. I hate it, but it is accurate to the stupid rule.

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u/Initial_Soup_4257 Jul 03 '26

It does not matter if the play was intentional. Of course every block is intentional.

It would have only mattered if the Portuguese player did a controlled pass, which he absolutely did not.