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Yesterday's offside decision

On the day 3 blog and on a number of other websites there seems to be a lot of folks quoting the Laws of the Game (or rules as many are stating) and Advice to referees.

As far as I can ascertain the most current Laws of the Game posted by FIFA is to be found here.

The only reference to defenders leaving the field of play that I can see in the July 2007 version (page 102) is:

“If a defending player steps behind his own goal line in order to place an opponent in an offside position, the referee shall allow play to continue and caution the defender for deliberately leaving the field of play without the referee’s permission when the ball is next out of play.”

So are the laws as posted by FIFA outdated? If so where is the current version? And finally for a UEFA official to say that the rule interpretation is not widely known by the players is a disgrace. It is up to the governing body to ensure that if a law is to be interpreted differently then the players should be told.

Day 4

Spain 4-1. Russia

It looked as if Guus Hiddink decided that the best way of hiding a porous defence was to go after the Spanish backline. Hiddink’s decision to play an open game certainly created some chances for his Russian side. However, the Russian strikers failed to take advantage of the opportunities that came their way and instead Russia were left open to the sort of swift counter attacks that Torres and Villa feast on.

The opening goal was Torres at his best. The ball played forward into space, Torres outmuscles a Russian defender and then slips it to Villa as he arrives in the penalty area. The second a killing pass from Iniesta and a wonderfully timed run from Villa.

Aragones was quick to ring the changes in the second half but it did little to change the pattern of the game. Two goals down Russia had no plan B and continued to press forward at every opportunity. The result was the same with Villa notching his hat trick and in the process adding $10M to the price that Real Madrid will pay for him later this summer.

A silver lining for Russia - admitedly a very small one - was Diniyar Bilyaletdinov who proved to be a continual irritant to Sergio Ramos. Meanwhile the rest of the Spanish back four looked none too comfortable either. But it took until later in the game for Russia to score and even then Spain countered to make it 4-1.

The Spanish off to their usual fast start while it was clear to see why Guus Hiddink has spent so much time talking down Russia’s 2008 chances. Spain cannot expect to be given as much space as they were granted today so I’m not sure that this result tells us anymore about Spain’s chances than we knew before the tournament.

Greece 0-2 Sweden

If you recorded this game with the intention of watching it later then do yourself a favour and fast forward to the 67th minute. You can see Ibrahimovic scoring a cracking goal and you will have also captured the only high point o####ame that never threatened to rise above the level of mediocre.

Greece inspired by Claude Makelele’s ability to spray immaculate 10 yard passes left and right but never forward showed no interest in making this match even remotely interesting to the neutral fan. Long diagonal “passes” played in behind the Swede’s right back Alexandersson and a few meandering runs by 2004 hero Charisteas was the limit to Greece’s attacking intent.

Sweden at least made an attempt to go forward although their execution was often poor. Just after Ibrahimovic’s out-of-nothing goal defender Peter Hansson added another to put the game way beyond the reigning champs after some comedy-defending from Greece.  

Comment of the Day

“We’ll only miss the English when it comes to penalties.” - Lothar Matthäus.

For those of you who enjoy more statistics with your game Castrol is sponsoring a web page as part of UEFA.com.