MANCHESTER CITY v WEST HAM UNITED - No grey day in Manchester
Sunday 20th January 2008
As the rain continued to tumble down, it was a familiarly grey day in Manchester but there should have been no grey areas about the goal that falsely gave Manchester City a point at Eastlands. Darius Vassell was shown to be in an offside position when the cross was played in. As the offside law almost states verbatim, the former Aston Villa marksman was gaining an advantage when the ball bounced to him off a West Ham United defender before he converted the chance: “Gaining an advantage… means playing a ball that rebounds to him off an opponent having been in an offside position.” It might not come entirely as a shock, but subsequent coverage would seem to suggest that some so-called experts do not know the law (pages 35 - 36 and 102 - 109 of the Laws of the Game 2007 / 2008, available from the FIFA web site at www.fifa.com, apply).
The Right Result is a 1-0 win for West Ham United.
Entry Filed under: Latest Incidents
4 Comments Add your own
1. BlueAnorak (Team - Manchester City) | January 21st, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hey! you can’t have it both ways.
If this goal was offside then the 2nd Santa Cruz Goal (by Blackburn against City on 27/12/07) was also offside. A dubious goal you REFUSE to add to the list of incidents BTW.
According to the letter of the law:
[1] A player is only offside if they touch the ball or will touch the ball when in an ‘Offside’ position.
[2] Should they subsequently touch the ball in the same phase of play they are offside.
But in this case a major case can be made for a new phase of play beginning because the crossed ball hits a West Ham player (at which point Vassel in onside position). As such the goal should stand and the linesmen was spot on.
2. BlueAnorak (Team - Manchester City) | January 21st, 2008 at 3:50 pm
The Goal is Valid!. Consider the laws of the game about becoming onside:
———————————————–
A player who is in an offside position at the moment the ball is played by a teammate can
become “on-side” in only four ways: (1) The player is not in front of the ball when it is next
played by one of his team; (2) the positions of the opponents change so the player is no longer in
an offside position when the ball is next played by one of his team; (3) an opponent intentionally
plays or gains possession of the ball; and (4) the ball goes out of play. The key point for all of
these, other than the obvious case (4), is that someone other than the player in the offside
position has to play the ball; he cannot put himself “on-side.”
———————————————-
The cross is touched by a City player and a West Ham Player before Vassel scores.
- Even if you assume the West Ham Player doesn’t intententionaly touch the ball [case 3 above] and the reason for my first comment on this thread then [case 1] applies because when the city player touched it with his head Vassel was not offside and is therefore onside from that point onwards.
The goal is valid and your experts dont know the rules of the game themselves.
3. BlueAnorak (Team - Manchester City) | January 21st, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Having looked at the video again
For point (1) - Vassell is probably JUST in front of the ball when the City player touches the cross. So he’s still probably offside. - Its a hair line decision though.
For point (2) Opponents and City players have all changed positions - so a good case for Vassell being onside can be made.
For point (3) though - the West Ham player definately tries to clear it but just gives it to Vassell (certainly not unintentional - though he gets no welly on it at all). So definately by this action he plays Vassell ON-SIDE.
So all in all a very shades of grey dicission, just like the Blackburn goal on 27/12/07.
4. Arsenalheaven | January 21st, 2008 at 4:49 pm
This is exactly the kind of thing which completely divides opinion and definitely you can make a case both ways. Personally I saw it as offside at the time as Vassell did certainly gain an advantage, although nowhere near as clear as the amusing Andy Gray seemed to think it was - mind you, more often than not I have issues with what he comes up with!!!
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