During Dempsey/O'Brien goal during MLS Allstar game that popped out of the goal by a Fulham player. I first thought he was a player warming up but during the replay I saw him step off the field. Was it Zat Knight? #1-Why would he step off? presumably to take him off the field to put MLS Team offside. #2-Can he do that? If a player is in the goal mouth behind the line which many players are keep players on side. I don't think he can do that. #3-If he just stepped to the inside of the goalmouth he would have been right where the goal went and would have kept the goal out #4-Why didn't JP Dellacamara or Wynalda say anything. He was in fact the one who hit the ball out of the back of the net. They first thought it had hit the post. Simply odd to happen and odder to be ignored.
I saw that too and had no idea what he was doing. The only thing that came to mind was the scene from the Full Monty where Horse is teaching the lads to dance by likening it to the offside trap, step forward and wave your hand like a fairy!
I was wondering that myself and I was surprised the announcers didn't jump on it. I think he got out of bounds to take himself out of the play and draw an MLSer offsides during that sequence.
It is specifically stated in the rule book that a player cannot be "made offside" by a player stepping off the field of play. It has no impact on whether the player is offside. If he intentionally left the field, and not by momentum or normal game flow (referees opinion) he should have received a manditory caution.
That's not the rule. A few years back in a Dortmund-Bayern match, a defender was juked off the pitch, a goal was scored by a player otherwise offside, there was alot of controversy on the pitch, Jens Lehman got his 2nd yellow on the play (for dissent) so I went to the the referees forum and asked. A defender can't put an attacker offside by running over the goalline, which, if you think about it, is kinda obvious. Teams defending free kicks from the side would just all line up at the 18 or inside the goal. How would you attack that? Zat Knight has a terrible, terrible soccer IQ. That's what happened on that play. I watched Fulham alot last year, and spent about half my time thinking, what the f*** is Coleman thinking playing that big retard. He's Agoosian.