I think this was a great example of what is called "flash lag" and something we should be aware of when we AR. This is something a FIFA instructor who was at our recert clinic this year spoke about.
I would probably leave the flag down on that one every time - because I've watched enough video examples and realized I'm almost always wrong when I choose offside in a close situation like this. But, having said that, the still shot (and a couple dozen looks at the replay) can support a view that the lean in (head/upper body) was putting him offside at the critical moment. I don't think the AR can be said to have missed this one badly, if at all.
http://michaelbach.de/ot/mot-flashLag/ Not sure if it directly applies, but another interesting insight into how our brains don't necessarily perceive correctly. One of a few missed match critical calls. Not a very good way of showing you and your crew are ready for the World Cup. This game wasn't really very challenging from a foul/management perspective, but it was fairly open-- maybe the crew got tired.
I am still just as ignorant as I was 10 minutes ago. Maybe pictures would help me. As an alternate explanation, maybe there is a tendency among ARs to raise the flag against a forward who was offside, then may or may not recover to onside, then pops offside again -- as happened here.
Only on this board could you take a simple missed offside call and turn it into a discussion on neuroscience...
I know you are being off-the-cuff, but I think every missed offside call should be turned into a discussion on neuroscience. (...not saying that this call was offside, either.)
I really can't see for sure from that angle that his head wasn't just a tiny bit offside there. Kind of one of the flaws of soccer that we have an offside rule that is almost impossible to judge when it is this close. My perspective is that if you need freeze frames and super slo-mo to definitively tell if a player is offside or not, we can't really criticize the crew.
My whole issue is that I thought that the FIFA directive stated that the AR was to keep the flag down unless they were certain the attacker was offside. In many of these circumstances, it is so close that we watch HD replays, over and over, and analyze the decision. Seems to me that all of these 'too close to call' should not in fact be called, but the play should continue. Am I misunderstanding the directive?
You may be confusing being certain with being right. The AR may very well have been certain that EJ was offside. Whether he was right or not is where the super slo mo replays come in.
Yes, if it's truly too close to call, you should keep your flag down. The trouble is, sometimes it's too close to call whether it's too close to call or not.
As we all know though, if the AR is even just a foot ahead of play with it being on the far side of the field, it's going change the angle just enough to make it appear Johnson was further ahead than he may have acutally been. Another flaw in the sport we love so much, but one we must accept until they come up with robotic ARs that can stay even with the 2LD and exactly perpendicular to the touch line.
I'm not sure how he missed that one...EJ is onside almost to the point that the ball passes the defender. At that level...that is a horrible miss. Seriously, that's not even close. And yes, when it doubt leave the flag down. At my state clinic last year (or the year before) we watched 20 tight offside clips and they had us judge them on our paper. I think I decided 12 or 13 were ON...which they all were, but so were the other 7 or 8. So unless they're clearly off they're most likely on.
This is why reffing is fun - we can all say "on" or "off" from the replay and debate what "when in doubt" means - but doing it in real time during a real match is where the test is. It would be interesting (and quite humbling) to have any match of mine subjected to such scrutiny....
That's the part that gets me--E.J. was running parallel to the offside line almost until the ball passed. I saw not just one freeze frame but a second one with the ball 6-7 yards off Dempsey's foot that showed him still even with the 2LD. I really have no idea what the AR thought he saw.
What does the freeze frame with the ball 6-7 yards off Dempsey's foot have anything to do with anything? The only moment that matters is the moment the ball is struck. If you notice, Dempsey is actually slowing his run to get BACK onside at the time the ball is kicked. The time he is the farthest offside is a few moments before the pass. So of course he is even with the 2LD a second AFTER the ball is kicked, because he's slowed up his run and the defender hasn't.
So you're stance is that since we can't tell if he's off or on, then we should err on the side of raising the flag? I'm going to go firmly on the record with the opposite view you have. If we can't be sure that he's offside when we have freeze frames and super slow-mo, then we absolutely should criticize the crew for raising the flag. If we're in doubt while looking at the replay, then how can you allow the AR to be confident he was offside? If we're talking about a couple of inches of EJ's head, then from the freeze frame I've seen, the thick ESPN line doesn't accurately represent the defender's toe. Let's at least move the line just a bit toward the goal like it should be. To me, this play is onside. If for no other reason than the AR couldn't have seen this freeze-frame in his mind due to the aforementioned flash-lag effect. If this play takes away a game-deciding goal at the World Cup, the crew will be sent home at the next round of cuts. No questions asked.
For one thing, the AR's view was far better from an angle standpoint than the replay. Even the still frame makes it look like there's a good chance that the shoulder and head are offside. There's an equal chance that the defender was entirely onside. There's not enough evidence for any of us to judge whether he got the call right from the replays we've seen. I definitely don't think there was justification for the commentators to be as matter-of-fact as they were about it last night. This is simply too much of a grey area. Nothing like some of the other offside calls we discuss here that replay shows are a step on or a step off and the AR missed.
Let's not forget that a big part of the reason these controversies have come about is because of Taylor Twellman, who had no problem declaring to the millions of ESPN viewers from his comfortable booth inside University of Phoenix Stadium that this was "clearly" not offside and that the contact on Green was "clearly" a foul (also, as he admitted, it was also "clearly" outside the PA). I agree that Morgan should've left the flag down (the freeze-frame is inconclusive to me) and I agree that the contact was probably a careless trip. But let's not pretend that these calls are easy to make. These are not the worst misses in the world.
The foul didn't get called because I think he wasn't comfortable with going to the spot if he did blow the whistle, but the offside imo is pretty bad. The point is that if you don't know then leave it down because in almost every case you are right. And I'm not sure why anybody would say that the AR had a better look than the camera...
You are clearly correct in clearly analyzing these scenarios...clearly. (Not poking at you, at our genius Twellman...clearly.)
What? How on earth did you ascertain that? My stance is that these decisions are hard. And I'm standing by that.
That is why the instruction states that if there is a doubt, to keep the flag down. Never seems to happen, but that is the instruction.