Some Soccer Questions

Or to be pelted by rotten tomatoes, if they’re the Italian side of 1966 (after they were essentially knocked out by the North Koreans–interestingly enough, the 1966 tournament was the only WC that the North Koreans ever played in until this year).

If the rumors are correct, the North Koreans had an even less welcome return:

One more question:

When a player is dribbling the ball along the sideline, and he inadvertently goes out-of-bounds (with the ball and not necessarily with his feet), why does the referee wait to blow the whistle? It seems as if the ref always waits until the player re-establishes inbounds before blowing the whistle to award the ball to the other team.

The slight delay you notice is probably just because it is not the referee who judges whether the ball is out - that is the job of the linesman (or “assistant referee” as they are now called). The assistant raises his flag, and once the referee sees that signal, he will blow the whistle.

One thing I will add to the penalty kick discussion - not all offences inside the area by the defending team will result in a penalty. It is possible to be awarded an indirect free kick (that is, a free kick from which you cannot score directly) inside the opponent’s penalty area. One example of when this happens is if the goalkeeper handles a backpass from one of his own players.

The player’s feet are irrelevant. What makes it difficult is the rule that the whole of the ball must be beyond (the outside of) the line. The ref is very dependent on his linesmen to see that.

IMO it is a badly-thought-out rule, because it is hard to see. You get situations where the ball makes contact with the ground beyond the line, but is technically still “in”. Sometimes you can see clear space between the line and the ball, but it is still not over the line, according to the rules. It’s very hard for an official to call that correctly.

I think it would be better if the rule was that the centre of the ball must be vertically beyond the outside edge of the line. Easier to determine, and it gybes better with the instinctive feeling of whether the ball was over the line. Also, it would mean that Geoff Hurst did actually score that third one* ::ducks objects thrown by German and Scottish people::*

I find that in practice the “whole of the ball” rule is only really considered when the discussion is about whether it is a goal or not. I can’t remember the last time someone said something along the lines of “that was never a throw in, the whole ball wasn’t over the line”.

No, but linesmen very often give throw-ins when the ball didn’t actually go out, according to the strict “whole ball over the line” rules. And I think they do that because intuitively the ball feels “out” as soon as more than half of it is beyond the line. So I think the laws might as well match natural human intuition, since it’s a pretty arbitrary definition anyway.

One more question: I see that some players can potentially reach the goal via throw-in, if it’s close enough. If no one touches a throw-in, and it goes into the goal, does it count?

Nope. Goal kick.

I imagine a lot of players will just want a break away from the game with their loved ones. Pre-season for many players starts in only a few weeks time, for their actual paying jobs, and some won’t have had a break for 11 months. I’ve no hard evidence for this, but I get the impression that players from the top clubs (with major European + domestic commitments, say) who also go deep into a World Cup campaign, often have a noticeable dip in form once the regular season starts up. They are well paid, and pampered, but it’s got to take a physical and mental toll.

Huh, I did not know that. Their team bus at the current World Cup has a big sign painted on it that reads “1966 Again! Victory for DPR of Korea!”–so I’d assumed that the North Koreans were proud of their performance in the 1966 WC (as they rightly should have been). If those rumors are indeed true, then I hope for the current squad, that it doesn’t turn out to be “1966 again” for them when they return home. :frowning:

That’s a pet peeve of mine. So many times you see a throw-in, goal kick or whatever called when the ball is barely more than half out of play. The point of contact of the ball on the pitch could be 4 inches* or more outside the back of the line and the ball would still be in, according to the laws. It’s one of a fairly limited number of tasks the linesmen (sorry, assistant referees) have to do, so you think they would apply the laws properly!

  • A soccer ball is typically about 8.7 inches in diameter.

In yesterday’s Switzerland-Honduras game, a ball was kicked across the front of the goal horizontally, and flew parallel to the goalline. About 3 players had a chance to put the ball into an empty net. Players awkwardly tried to position their feet to kick the ball in. Is this simply instinctual? Because it would have been very easy to simply block the ball in with their knee, butt, hip, etc. I assume this is allowed so long as the arms don’t make contact with the ball.

I didn’t follow that match and so missed this particular scene, but yes, you can score with any body part except the hands or arms. There have been goals scored with the butt.

They finish the play, IIRC the Euro 2000 final injurt time was over but the ref allowed the last play to continue; which led to a goal for France who went on to win the match.

“Finish the play” doesn’t mean the referee will wait for the ball to go out of play before blowing the whistle, though. In practice, if there’s an attacking move going on, the ref will allow the attacking team to get a shot in. If they lose the ball or it otherwise becomes clear that the move is going to come to anything, the ref will usually blow for FT even though the ball is still in play.

It might have to do with the smug condescension many soccer fans use to describe the superiority of soccer by pointing out how fluid and continuous the game is. Is the clock were stopped every time play stopped it would put the lie to this claim, but since the clock never stops the patronizing continues.

And the genitals - I think there’s a youtube clip with someone like Bryan Robson doing this.

Professional athletes scoring with their wangs? Inconceivable.

It was a seminal moment.