AR Review: Week 30
How much interfering with an opponent do you need to call offside? How little does it take to cause a goalkeeper to miss time a clearance? We look at two plays this week where there is a possibility that an offside positioned attacker interfered with an opponent… and went unpunished. We also spotted a little referee/assistant teamwork in San Jose v Chicago that we want to highlight for the benefit of others.
A little interfering with an opponent?
Did you notice the possible
interfering with an
opponent on the first
Philadelphia goal versus
Los Angeles? Watch the goal
again, but focus on the
actions of Philadelphia’s #17
Sapong who appears to step
back into the path of the LA
defender causing him to
slightly veer to get into a
defensive position. Does the
action of Sapong rise to the
level of interfering with an
opponent? In our opinion, no, as the defender is still able to get into position and is not clearly impacted by the offside positioned attacker. That opinion would certainly change if the defender was tripped or was actually blocked by Sapong.