World Cup 2026

[HVC]

Has to be intentional contact, no? Even if there was contact the defender was ducking away. He wasn't trying to redirect.

[Sheilbh]

Sorry I meant contact with the ball - if the Croatian player didn't head it then I think it came off a Portuguese player and Gvardiol's not offside, no?

[HVC]

Other way, no? Croatian guy headed it. Ball censor confirmed. But Croatian dude was offside on the header. If the portuguese defender played the ball then its no longer office. Basically counts as an intercepted back pass. But it has to be intentional. Cant be a deflection.

At least that's how I understand it.

*edit* for clarification the Croatian at the post was offside, not the guy who headed it. Post dude was offside both at the kick and off the header so doesn't matter if it touched header guy. What matters is if the defender touched it and if he did whether it was intentional.

*edit 2* I just saw recap and I remembered wrong, he wasn't offside at the kick. My bad. Still sensor showed header contact so it's moot. Technology is cool.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah I think we're meaning the same thing actually just talkin about different players I hadn't realised there was a ball sensor so I thought they were judging off the video and none of the angles seemed clear to me that the Croatian player had actually touched the ball.

[Norgy]

I've just watched highlights from last night's games (I went to bed very early and slept for an ungodly 9 hours), and the dastardly Swiss seem to be sneaking up on us, all neutral and with their banking code and private parks. The team must have a good manager as even Dan Ndoye seems to be able to play football. 

The Falange also looks dangerous, but that was always a known.

[Zoupa]

I don't think im gonna like this ref 

god that ref was annoying. It never should have even gotten to the 2nd Croatian goal BECAUSE HE SHOULD HAVE BLOWN THE WHISTLE 2 MINUTES PRIOR.

Some of these guys really love the attention and it`s fucking annoying. You're supposed to be invisible.

[Josquius]

Watching the highlights....yeah. Probably wouldn't have given offside for that Croatia goal. Whether the Croatian headed it or not is secondary to the Portuguese defender heading it on.

[Zoupa]

the rules are pretty clear that the touch from the defending player needs to be intentional to offset the offside. Since the portuguese player's touch was unintentional, the croatian was offside.

[Josquius]

the rules are pretty clear that the touch from the defending player needs to be intentional to offset the offside. Since the portuguese player's touch was unintentional, the croatian was offside.

A defender getting his head onto the ball coming into the box is unintentional?
It going the direction it did was very much unintentional, but he clearly did want to get to the ball.

The main defence I would see is the initial Croatian touch came with the goalscorer already in an offside position- but to that I'd say he wasn't interfering in play and hadn't yet touched it himself.

[crazy canuck]

the rules are pretty clear that the touch from the defending player needs to be intentional to offset the offside. Since the portuguese player's touch was unintentional, the croatian was offside.

Yeah, but it's now not such a clear role. Now the ref has to decide the intention of the player who touched the ball. The ball was clearly touched and to me it looked like he did it intentionally.

But now we get into a big semantic battle about what intention means.

Why not just make the rule very simple if a defending player touches the ball and then it's not offside?

Anyway, I'm sure there are good reasons for not doing it that way, but you end up with something is very difficult to do and that is to decide on somebody's intention.

The other perspective is that it's very difficult for an offensive player to think he split second decision about another players intention. All the Croatian players saw was the ball come off the head of the Portuguese player, he therefore played the ball. It's a bit unfair to say in hindsight with the benefit of VAR and I don't know how many minutes it took for the referee to make the decision that in fact, the Portuguese player did not intend to touch it.

[Josquius]

So....England are on at 1am....
Wondering whether its practical to keep myself away from anything liable to spoil it until 8:30 (won't use my clock radio that day) and watch it on repeat.
Not sure I trust iplayer not to spoil it though....

[Maladict]

So....England are on at 1am....
Wondering whether its practical to keep myself away from anything liable to spoil it until 8:30 (won't use my clock radio that day) and watch it on repeat.
Not sure I trust iplayer not to spoil it though....

How will you not hear it from the noise outside?