Description of incident: King launched the ball forward from deep inside the Tottenham half. Defoe was making his way back onside and made no attempt to chase the ball. As it dropped 30 yards from Liverpool's goal Reina came racing out as Kyrgiakos reached the ball & passed it back to the Spanish stopper. At this point Defoe, from an onside position, came forward to challenge Reina who, in the meantime, had got his feet in a real tangle. Defoe simply rolled the ball into the empty net. As it rolled towards the line, the ref blew his whistle to award offside. Phew!
Date of Game: Wednesday 20th January 2010
Home Team:
Liverpool | Away Team:
TottenhamReferee: Howard Webb | Linesman: Peter Kirkup & Shaun Procter-Green
Decision Type: Offside | Verdict:
| Decision Difficulty: 5/5Affect on Result: Denied Spurs an equaliser & who's to say which way the game would have swung if it had gone to 1-1 | Winner: Liverpool | Loser: Tottenham
Players Involved: Jermain Defoe (Tottenham), Jose Reina & Sotirios Kyrgiakos (Liverpool)
Summary: I've given this decision a difficulty score of 5 as I think the state of the current offside rule is almost impossible to interpret. Phase 2 onside or whatever it's called creates too much of a grey area. I'm all for going back to the simple days of blowing for offside when the ball was originally launched forward. Having said all that, assuming I'm understanding the laws of the game correctly, Defoe was not offside. Once Kyrgiakos touches the ball, Defoe is instantly onside. I'm not even sure it matters whether he'd made his way onside or not. "Phase 2" starts with the defenders touch. But even if I'm wrong there, the fact is Defoe did make his way back onside AND had made not attempt to challenge for or chase the ball prior to Kyrgiakos' touch. Tough decision, but the goal should have stood.
I actually found this decision painful to make.
Cheers,
WB
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