***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

[Urbandale2013]

“Second to last player” just means last defender, cause the goalie is technically the last one. It might just be the camera angle but it really looks like the Egypt defender at the top of the screen was behind the defender that they highlighted. It’s also crazy the broadcast said they were looking for a handball and then came back with the offsides call

I think that is where the confusion is. It truly is second to last player when most people just think of it as last outfield player. The way I am seeing it explained is the goalie was forward and didn’t take the normal spot of the second player.

 

[AppleCornCy]

I get the need for the offsides rule but I hate seeing great goals disallowed just because somebody has a toe or an ass cheek or something a tiny bit past the defender.

 

[twojman]

I get the need for the offsides rule but I hate seeing great goals disallowed just because somebody has a toe or an ass cheek or something a tiny bit past the defender.

Several weeks back I saw an EPL goal get taken away basically because the guys thigh muscle was a little too big and got beyond the last defender. I'm like what are we even doing here, this is dumb. Get rid of VAR.

 

[CY88CE11]

I think that is where the confusion is. It truly is second to last player when most people just think of it as last outfield player. The way I am seeing it explained is the goalie was forward and didn’t take the normal spot of the second player.

This is what confused me. Last defender is what I've always heard. I ignored the goalie. This was confusing to me until your post. I don't necessarily agree with the rule, but I understand it better.

 

[AppleCornCy]

Several weeks back I saw an EPL goal get taken away basically because the guys thigh muscle was a little too big and got beyond the last defender. I'm like what are we even doing here, this is dumb. Get rid of VAR.

Or at least give a little bit of wiggle room. There was an offsides call the other day (can’t remember which game or if it involved a goal) where the offsides player was facing away and moving away from the goal, but some body part was just barely past the defender.

It’s like, come on. We’re just going to estimate how much stoppage time there should be, but when it comes to offsides, we’re going to be strict down to the millimeter?