Twellman Offside 2

[chrisrun]

In the US - Panama game last night, I thought there were 2 incidents of offside that involved Twellman that were "blown". If anyone else remembers these incidents, I would be interested in getting your perspective as well.

The first situation (around minute 32) is where Twellman was making a run in the box, and the ball was cleared. As he is slowly getting back, the ball is quickly sent back in. He is in an offside position and starts to chase the ball. However, he sees Mapp going for the ball, from an onside position, and pulls up a few yards from the ball. Yet the AR had raised the flag on Twellman already, and the play was whistled dead. I think the AR acted too quickly in this case, and should have waited for Twellman to touch the ball before raising the flag (which he wouldn't have had to do, as Mapp got to it first.)

Maybe the AR realized this because a little while later I think he acted too slowly. Twellman was again in an offside position near the top of the box, and a high ball was lofted in. Twellman ran in as the goalie ran out, and it was basically 1 on 1 for the ball. The AR waited until Twellan was in the air to raise the flag, and a collision between him and the goalie occured. If he had raised the flag as he was running forward, seeing that he was going for a ball that could result in a collision, it could have been avoided.

[Ref Flunkie]

In the US - Panama game last night, I thought there were 2 incidents of offside that involved Twellman that were "blown". If anyone else remembers these incidents, I would be interested in getting your perspective as well.

The first situation (around minute 32) is where Twellman was making a run in the box, and the ball was cleared. As he is slowly getting back, the ball is quickly sent back in. He is in an offside position and starts to chase the ball. However, he sees Mapp going for the ball, from an onside position, and pulls up a few yards from the ball. Yet the AR had raised the flag on Twellman already, and the play was whistled dead. I think the AR acted too quickly in this case, and should have waited for Twellman to touch the ball before raising the flag (which he wouldn't have had to do, as Mapp got to it first.)

Maybe the AR realized this because a little while later I think he acted too slowly. Twellman was again in an offside position near the top of the box, and a high ball was lofted in. Twellman ran in as the goalie ran out, and it was basically 1 on 1 for the ball. The AR waited until Twellan was in the air to raise the flag, and a collision between him and the goalie occured. If he had raised the flag as he was running forward, seeing that he was going for a ball that could result in a collision, it could have been avoided.


I thought both calls were correct. When Twellman started running for the ball, he drew the attention of defenders, therefore he was involved in the play and should be flagged. The one where he collided with the GK, he was basically stading still in a line of players (just behind them). Then when the ball was cleared in, he ran in as the GK was running out...and it really wasnt more then a couple steps if I remember correctly. I don't think the AR had enough time to raise the flag before the collision occurred. It wasn't like this was a 20 yard run and Twellman was the only one there. Of course, these are my views from live play, I didn't go back and watch any of them.

[nsa]

The AR had his flag up for the second incident well before the crash.

In the first one, TT ran towards the ball and was only a few yards away from it when he turned away. He definitely influenced the play of the defendersand thus was flagged correctly, IMHO.

[chrisrun]

In the first one, TT ran towards the ball and was only a few yards away from it when he turned away. He definitely influenced the play of the defendersand thus was flagged correctly, IMHO.
I don't think Taylor influenced the play, I think the ball did. The defender was moving towards the ball as both Mapp and Twellman were moving that way. I think this is one of the cases that FIFA was trying to describe when setting up their "touching" rule. An onside attacker had a chance at the ball, and I think the AR should have waited to see who got to the ball first.

[Craig P]

The way I remember the play, Twellman actually reached out to touch the ball and then at the last second remembered he was offside (or had someone yell at him to leave the ball), and I was thinking at the time that the official could be forgiven for anticipating the touch in that case. But I don't know if I actually saw when the flag went up, so I might be giving the AR more credit than he deserves.