View Full Version : Encroachment on Freekicks
Doug the Ref
10 Jul 2006, 02:46 PM
Am I missing something, or did France greatly encroach on a couple of Italy's freekicks? I seem to remember one in paticular where the French player ran out of the wall and in fact made contact with the kick. I was stunned, and told my son I wished they woud replay that to see if the kick was an indirect. We agreed we thought the call was for a direct kick infraction, but maybe we missed something. Later, the same thing happened. Same player burst from the wall to block the kick, this time missing the ball. I was waiting for some indication from the referee, but there was none.
Wasn't there more emphasis on this encroachment (required distance) behavior earlier in the Cup? Why wouldn't this be called since the first instance blocked the kick, completely changing direction of the ball?
dadman
10 Jul 2006, 03:11 PM
I don't know about the second incident (I remember the slo-mo replay but was focusing on other things since there was no contact), but on the first, if it's the one I recall, another player had nudged the ball before the shot was taken, so the run-forward was legal. They didn't do a good job of showing it, and it wasn't mentioned by the sportscasters, but that's what I saw as the camera cut to wide angle.
Ref Flunkie
10 Jul 2006, 04:05 PM
Yup, first kick was touched. Second was not and the end of the wall did come in. Perhaps the referee thought it trifiling since the kick went over the left side of the wall, while the player was on the right side.
Doug the Ref
10 Jul 2006, 04:28 PM
2nd one I can usderstand the trifiling, but I didn't see the initial nudge-touch on the first kick where it was blocked.
Craig P
10 Jul 2006, 05:00 PM
The first one was definitely the three-man touch-trap-shoot play. The only thing I'm not sure of is whether the French player encroached before the initial touch or not.
Gary V
10 Jul 2006, 06:16 PM
I noticed one time when the last brick on the wall encroached signficantly, but as the ball curled over the other side of the wall it was probably trifling.
But I don't know how many times I saw players standing in front of the ball forcing a ceremonial restart without any reprecussions. "They gotta ask for 10" is in the WC bylaws?