Hey 4REST,

did the AR in last night's Gold Cup semi get the call right?

Craig Forrest was spouting off about how the ball came off the defender before landing at Atiba's feet. Big deal. If he was in an offside position at the time the ball was kicked, it shouldn't matter if it came off the defender. Is this correct?

Either way he was never in a offside position.

	woooooo wrote:
	Either way he was never in a offside position.

Well, when he got the ball, he was definitely offside. Was he when the ball was played? I saw two different replays and each seemed like it was very close. The point I'm making is Forrest seemed to imply that he could not be offside because the ball was "played" off a defender. That's incorrect. Canadian coach also said that the American defender played the ball back and therefore it can't be offside. Not sure about that, but it's hard to say that he "played" the ball back...looked more like a deflection to me.

Like I've said numerous times, even at the highest levels, there are complaints about the officials.

Assuming the Canadian player was in an offside position to start with (and before anyone says anything, it is NOT an offence to be in an offside position, the offence is to gain an advantage from being in an offside position), then these are the questions:

Did he gain an advantage from being in an offside position when the the ball when the ball was played by his team mate.

If the answer to that is yes, and you believe the ball rebounded off the defender, then he gained advantage and offside is the correct call.

IMO... the ball was last played by a defender, it was not a rebound, he was attempting to play the ball, therefore the Canadian player was not offside. The ball as played by his team mate was going away from him and he was therefore not involved in the active play.

That was my first reaction, and the two replays I have seen I have not changed my mind.

Right. I've reviewed the play on youtube... Hutchinson was not in an offside position when the ball was played by (Staltieri).

The last touch by the defender was not a rebound, he was playing the ball, therefore Hutchinson could not be called offside even if he was in an offside position (which he wasn't).

Bad call by the AR, he's made the ref look bad... but the law says the referee's decision is final, so that's it. Accept it and play on.

CONCACAF will probably downgrade the AR and the ref for that. You think it's tough cos we got eliminated by an error, but refs and AR's who work hard to get to the top level can have the carpet pulled from under them for one basic error...

And despite all that I'm still not in favour of video replays or any other form of "helping" the officials...