Anyone who saw the LA/KC match on Saturday was treated to a display of ignorance by Mr. Bretos and Mr. Hopkins concerning the golden goal. Both these guys were apoplectic about the goal being counted because of a supposed "offside". Bretos, in particular, was all over Kevin Stott, saying that he was going to "call the league office right now" if the goal stood. Any knowledgable fan could see that it was clearly the right call, but apparently a knowledge of the LOTG is not a requirement to be an announcer.
I don't think so. There is already a debate taking place and a lot of knowledgable fans got it wrong too. I am not so sure who is right and who is wrong either after reading all the posts.
The announcers were wrong. WAY wrong. You can't be offiside if the ball is never behind you. It never was. Max and Alan made fools of themselves. Utter fools. As a soccer fan and MLS fan, I was embarassed watching and listening to their display at the end of the game. After watching this, I really think that for all MLS broadcasts there needs to be at least one person who has played the game professionally, as either the PBP guy or, more likely, the analyst. Having two soccer dorks (and I speak as one myslef), which is all Max and, especially Alan, are, just doesn't do it. Hopkins should be passing his resume out today after that display.
If you watched MLS Wrap on Saturday night, you would have heard John Harkes mentioned that the league thought that Igor Simutenkov was even with the 2nd to last defender at the time the first shot by Chris Klein was taken. Klein was onside when he took the shot. Simutenkov was actually about a foot offside. However, he was not involved in that play so he was in a "passive" offside position. Regardless of whether Simutenkov was in a "passive" offside position or not, as soon as Klein's shot hit the goal post and rebounded to anyone OTHER than Simutenkov, the first play was OVER. Klein received the rebound so a new play began. When Klein received the rebound, he passed the ball laterally (not forward) to Simutenkov. As long as Simutenkov wasn't in front of Klein, he couldn't be offside in the 2nd play.
Sure looked like he was in an offside position when the ball was played to him. Weather the ball was passed forward or not relevant.
Educated guess - the conversation went something like this: KS: Who did you flag? AR: Simutenkov KS: Was he behind the ball when Klein passed it to him? AR: Yes KS: OK, goal stands.
There's a word missing in this sentence...can you fix it so that it's comprehensible? I'm not doing grammar smack...I really can't figure out what you're saying, because you're missing the verb in the 2nd clause. I'm sure you want to put "is" in there, but after the "not", or in place of "or"?
Or something like: KS: Was he offside Linesmen: Yes KS: Well too bad, I'm calling a goal anyway. Niether of us were there and I don't trust the folks at the league office so I guess we'll never really know.
Hopkins wasn't announcing the Bundesliga match today. They got the feed from Europe with Toby Charles. Hopkins is stuck to the introduction, halftime, and summary.
He was back on the game on Sunday. I like Allen Hopkins, but Toby Charles is light-years better, and that's no disrespect to Hopkins.
During the game on Sunday, he went on a little sidebar about how he was happy to be "home" after covering a bunch of domestic league games. He then went on to say that "home" is really Germany because he is a native Berliner. It sounded like he was trying to justify his post as a Bundesligia announcer when he slipped that in.