West Ham v Liverpool - West Ham Second Goal

[Russell Jones]

Was a little surprised that there was no discussion about a possible offside in the build up to West Ham's second goal. When the ball was played through to Fornals, Antonio was clearly in an offside position. Because of Antonio continuing his run toward goal, Van Dyk didn't have a clear route to get cleanly across to challenge Fornals for the ball before he got his shot away. I immediately wondered if this would fall under the clause

• making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball

The "clearly" bit is most definitely debateable here ... I'm just surprised there seemingly was no debate!

 

[socal lurker]

I don’t think a run can classify as a clear action in the meaning of Law 11.

But I think the provision that could apply is the one that isn’t with the 4 ways to interfere with an opponent, but in the three specific situations (which immediately falls the explanation of a save): it’s an offense of the OSP player interferes with the movement of a defender if that impacts the ability of the defender to play or challenge for the ball.

(I haven’t seen the play, so I have no opinion, but that’s the criteria that should have been used to decide if there is an offense.)