[ITA] Coppa Italia 2013/2014 (25 Viewers)
- Thread starter Dostoevsky
- Start date
The funny thing is, while you are all debating the legitimacy of the goal, here is what the Atalanta coach had to say 
http://football-italia.net/43893/colantuono-ref-was-right
http://football-italia.net/43893/colantuono-ref-was-right
On the Napoli goal I believe people need to differentiate between a bad rule and a bad decision.
If I was writing the offside rule, that goal would definitely be considered offside.
As the rule stands, though, I believe the officials probably made the correct decision.
It bugs me the number of times in games that I see defenders having to make awkward clearances - that may well fall to the opposition in dangerous positions - because they feel they have to play a ball that is going to a player that is offside (but they can't be sure at the time) and it isn't flagged because the defender intercepts it before it reaches the attacker.
The whole 'interfering with play' thing is just silly.
Everything is interfering with play, virtually.
The player may seem to be out of the game, but his position might chance the defenders position by a yard or cause the defender to have his body weight going the wrong way and that could be crucial.
No chance of it being considered to be interfering with play and offside, though.
Now I'm not expecting the offside rule to return to being very much in the defenders' favour as it was 30 years ago (or go back to when there had to be three defenders, not two, between the attacker and the goal as it was 100 years ago), but the balance has clearly gone far too far towards favouring the attackers.
If I was writing the offside rule, that goal would definitely be considered offside.
As the rule stands, though, I believe the officials probably made the correct decision.
It bugs me the number of times in games that I see defenders having to make awkward clearances - that may well fall to the opposition in dangerous positions - because they feel they have to play a ball that is going to a player that is offside (but they can't be sure at the time) and it isn't flagged because the defender intercepts it before it reaches the attacker.
The whole 'interfering with play' thing is just silly.
Everything is interfering with play, virtually.
The player may seem to be out of the game, but his position might chance the defenders position by a yard or cause the defender to have his body weight going the wrong way and that could be crucial.
No chance of it being considered to be interfering with play and offside, though.
Now I'm not expecting the offside rule to return to being very much in the defenders' favour as it was 30 years ago (or go back to when there had to be three defenders, not two, between the attacker and the goal as it was 100 years ago), but the balance has clearly gone far too far towards favouring the attackers.
exactly how I interpret the rule.
No, cause the defender has to play it - it was a random deflection and that's always an offside. The rules are pretty clear.
But let us look at the situation before that. No other Napoli player has a chance to reach the ball, therefore it's Higuain who causes the defender to stop his running which is interfering with the play and an offside even though Higuain didn't touch the ball.
But let us look at the situation before that. No other Napoli player has a chance to reach the ball, therefore it's Higuain who causes the defender to stop his running which is interfering with the play and an offside even though Higuain didn't touch the ball.