I guess it's just an example of how people really see things differently. I see that defender, and to me he is clearly further upfield than Mullan and Mullan's defender. My eyes and brain tell me Mullan is clearly offsides. I'm using the sidelines and their angle to infer the 90 degree cross field line (as well as early in the video you can see the midfield stripe to help get a sense for things). But I understand that others are seeing it differently.....and that's your perspective.
pink arrows....the center of gravity (which is used to determine "the line" of the last two defenders, ie I see these two as equally far back. The yellow line....the center of gravity of defender closest to Mullan, not the last man. Green arrow, how far Mullan is offside....roughly 1 - 2 feet and no steps.
Great picture - obviously, the art is in figuring out where to draw the line across the field. Yours seems pretty accurate, and is what I was envisioning. As I posted, Mullan's back foot was just past the defender's front foot, so if that means no steps offsides, then I agree. Bottom line, very close, but offsides. But I've seen many worse calls, and as someone pointed out if the defender was beat hadn't stopped and raised his hand, he could have caught up to Mullan and at least fouled him to prevent the break. Great play by Mullan to put it away, and that's the breaks.
Yep, I think this is the point and why the Dallas fans should let it go. As poor offside calls go, this one isn't going on any lists because this was a tough one because it's close and defenders to compare him with are rather far away. We've seen far worse offside calls not going our way this year. I can't recall that any were as clearly game changing as the Chivas DeRo one, but plenty that get a higher score on the "bad call" meter. And your point is right, if a player gives up on the play before the whistle, what do they expect? That's the reason Jeff Parke of the Metros got burned by New England last week....assumed a foul was gong to be called, it wasn't and the NE player just took the ball and headed for the goal. Good finish by Mullan!
Congradulations to Clark who just won goal of the week. http://sanjose.earthquakes.mlsnet.com/MLS/sje/
One problem with the photo (thanks for the pic btw): the white line is not parallel with the 18 yard line. If you tilt it slightly to be parallel, Mullan is a lot closer to being onside. Your image makes me think it may have been a good non-call (when I thought otherwise while watching the video).
Actually, it's virtually impossible to tell if the line is correct or not. Because of the tricks of depth/perspective, it looks like it's not, but that is the result of the camera angle, as well as likely lens effects. Try looking at the field next time you are in a similar angle in person, and you'll see that a line that IS parallel to another line further away from you doesn't really look parallel. That's the point the other posters have made about the bad angle making it very hard to really tell whether he is offsides or not. The only time two lines that are parallel really look completely parallel is if they are right in front of you or if they are at 90 degree angles to you.
is there already an official Rico thread? If not there should be, if so, can someone dig it up and make it current? This guy is fast becoming one of my favourites.
Correct. Consider this photo: As you can see, the various railroad tracks, lights and streetlines run mostly parallel to one another in reality, but in the photo they obviously are not. Artists refer to the point at which those points intersect (or would intersect should you continue them) as the "vanishing point."
This is true, but no matter how wide the zoom you will never actually see the lamps cross over the rail to the other side like we did with mullan (only saying this cos the rednecks aren't around any more )
It looks like the AR is on the side of the field that Mullan is on, ahead of the play. You can just see (I think) his shadow on the sideline showing he is way ahead of the play. You can't see it on these pictures, but I looked at the video and thought I saw it. But it's really hard to tell....
Well, Clark wins it, and deservedly. However, watching the clip again, I can't help but take note of the shambolic defending by Dallas on Kelly Gray. The ball pops up and they jump somewhere else. He collects it and falls down and they back away. He stumbles around and they light up a smoke and settle down for a look-see. What was going on there?
You are crazy. Gbandi anticipated the pass, stepped up and had him trapped dead to rights. It was an absolutely terrible call. They don't get any easier than this one, simply because of how clear Gbandi made it wiith his body position. It wasn't even that long of a pass (so the AR should have been able to keep his eye on Mullen when the ball was played). And for all of those critiqueing Gbandi - the offsides trap is a perfectly legitimate tactic. One can argue with why he felt the need to appeal and not hustle back - but he defended Mullen properly. There was nothing wrong with his technique or execution on the play. And the picture above is very deceptive because of the perspective. I don't have a dog in this fight. I hate every game played at that little bandbox stadium and I would probably prefer the Earthquakes to beat the Dallas Horns. But that was such an egregious piece of officiating that it is embarrassing that the league selected that goal to be featured for goal of the week. Especially when they could have buried it since the game was not televised.
You may be right. But how do you know Gbandi's position relative to the other two back Dallas defenders? To me it looks like those two are further downfield than Gbandi. But w/o having the right perspective who can say definitively either way? I'm sure there are Dallas fans that will claim they were there sitting at the right spot to see it. But people tend to see what's happening sometime after the pass is made, not at the time the pass is made.
I respectfully disagree, he gave up on the play when he was the best positioned player to make things hard for Mullan, offside or not he should have played the whistle.
So let me get this straight: Everyone here is looking at the same photo of Mullan and the defender, but only you understand the subtleties of perspective. Thanks. That helps.