Question Number: 17666

Law 11 - Offside 11/4/2007

RE: Rec. Adult

Tom of Kingsport, TN USA asks...

A player gets the ball on his side of midfield. All the defensive players are across midfield and not defending their goal. The player with the ball dribbles across midfield. There is only the goalie between him/her and the goal. The player dribbles all the way to the goal and scores. Does the score count or was the player offsides since there was only one defensive player between the goal and the player with the ball? If the player with the ball had passed the ball to another teammate and the teammate scored the score would not count because that player was off-sides. The score from the player that dribbled across midfield to the opponent's goal should count because the ball was not passed off to another offensive player.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

We have to go back to the sentence before the one you first wrote. Where was the player when the ball was last touched by a teammate? That makes all the difference. Just because the player got the ball in his own half of the field, that doesn't mean he was not in an offside position earlier when a teammate played it.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Tom, I sense a misunderstanding of offside here and would suggest you go to our main page and read Ref Fleischer's excellent presentation

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

I agree that you should read Mr. Flesischer's presentation on the main page. If the attacker was closer to goal line than ball and second last defender on on attacking half of field at moment the teammate passed him the ball, then it should be offside. The referee should call this well before he dribbles down the field and scores a goal.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 17715