On Sun, Jun 20, 2010 at 22:44, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > (though I still can not decipher what they mean by off-sides, and it is > unclear to me what a tackle is, and which ones are legal and which are not).
The offside rule is to soccer what the infield fly rule is to baseball - the one part of the game where not understanding is a bit of a standard joke. As I understand it, you're offside if you are not in the half of the field your team is defending, you are between the ball and the goal line, and there are fewer than two players from the opposing team between you and the goal line. (In other words, the furthest downfield without being offside is the midfield line, the second-to-last defender, or the ball, whichever is closest to the goal line.) If you're offside, you can't play the ball, keep your opponent from playing the ball, or do anything else that gives your team an advantage. The supposed complexity comes from the infraction - if a player is offside when the ball is last handled by someone on their team, they aren't back onside until someone who was onside at that time touches the ball again, and if you were onside when the ball was last handled by someone else, you can continue playing even if you would otherwise be offside. -- David J. Lynch [email protected] -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
