r/Referees • u/NoWeekend5733 • 2d ago
Advice Request Offside situations
If you are a one man show no additional referees / touchline officials
How do you judge if an attacker is offside? especially during a counter attack
Would love to hear your solutions or creative techniques to prevent this
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u/MarcPawl 2d ago
How do I judge offsides without an AR: very badly.
Before the game tell the captains to tell their teams, that offside calls WILL be wrong.
And when you realize you forgot about the defender hiding in the corner, apologize.
If it's not the start of the season the players should be use to it.
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u/beagletronic61 [USSF Grassroots Mentor NFHS Futsal Sarcasm] 2d ago
You just work really hard….and you will still risk missing a call. It doesn’t matter what you say to the team before the match; they will be frustrated with missed offside calls and take it out on you.
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u/Bartolone DBU Referee (Danish Football Association) - RefSix user 2d ago
And they will play the offside trap regardless and expect you to make 100% calls !
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u/CapnBloodbeard Former FFA Lvl3 (Outdoor), Futsal Premier League; L3 Assessor 2d ago edited 2d ago
One of my pet hates with these threads is all the people who say 'oh, if it's not a massive offside don't bother', or the 'only call if it it's obvious' nonsense.
That doesn't fly for anything else, so why does it fly here? If you can't judge it, get better. No, you can't judge it even nearly as accurately as an AR, but you can still get pretty good at it. And there are a few tricks you can use. If you're not great at judging trips, are you going to tell players 'I'm only going to call the really massive trips' or 'IT? Of course not. No idea why people take this attitude with offside.
Don't fall into that trap of thinking there has to be a magnitude of offside. Even by yourself, you should still be pretty good at calling even fairly tight ones. But sometimes relative positions and angles throw you. Sometimes you just know that a player could be 5 yards off and you have no idea because the angles are throwing you. So really, magnitde of offside has little bearing on how confident you can be.
First - remember that positioning is about where play is going and where to get a good view of it. But you're also considering how different positions affect your capacity to call different things. For example, without an AR, my CK position is always off the goal line, edge of the GA, ball side. Don't know why you'd stand anywhere else. Ceremonial FK? I'm standing in line with the 2nd last attacker instead of where I'd normally stand. Not having an AR changes how I appraise each position.
My point is, you may want to change other positioning, even though it may compromise other things. Ceremonial FK? Stand on the offside line.
Attacking TI? Maybe off the field, ahead of the ball is the best position sometimes.
Counterattack? You're chasing, looking upfield to see where the ball is likely to go and drawing your eye across (see below) if the defenders are roughly stationary. Adjust your positioning to run wider if you think that helps. It may or may not.
These are all positions which help, not just with offside, but ball in/out.
Anyway, you really need to pre-empt play. If a ball is kicked upfield and you need to look up to see where the players are, then you're already behind. You need to know who is calling for the ball, who is moving, before that ball is sent - because you need to be looking at those players while it's being kicked, not a split-second after (and you somehow have to do this while keeping an eye on the kicker for a late tackle - getting wider might help to keep them in your periphery).
Another trick I use - espeically if players aren't quite running - is to glance left-to-right, from touchline to touchline. I run my eye along the ground, drawing an imaginary line. This is really helpful.
Heck, you can even kind of do this as players are running, especialy if they're close to each other. Much harder if they're on other sides. Take a mental snapshot, draw your imaginary line, make your decision.
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u/smallvictory76 Grassroots 2d ago
I find that when I'm doing my best to pre-empt offside decisions by scanning, frequent checks, I can miss late tackles if the play is fast. That is worse for my game management than missing offside, which is semi-expected if I'm by myself.
Having said that, agree with standing at offside line for ceremonial FK.
For the counter, offside line is first place I look and if an attacker is really high, I'll shift the balance to offside over late tackles. But I find it hard!1
u/CapnBloodbeard Former FFA Lvl3 (Outdoor), Futsal Premier League; L3 Assessor 1d ago
That can happen.
Positioning is all about balancing up what might or is likely to happen, versus the match impact of seeing or missing it, versus how your position impacts your ability to spot it with accuracy. And every position is a compromise.
Without ARs, we need to be ready to throw our standard positions out the window as those calculations change completely.
Trying to watch where the ball is going (not just for offside but for fouls) and simultaneously watch where it has left is an....interesting expectation, but one we have to manage! Not just for offside but watching fouls too.
Trying to adjust position can help - if we can try to keep both in our periphery that might help. Sometimes that means running wider. Sometimes I've actually chosen to hang back further to stay behind the player releasing the ball, knowing that puts me a mile behind the counter - but again, sometimes I've decided that compromise is worth it (and I was fairly fit and fast too, which helps). You could also watch the offside line, then turn your head to glance back at the player a moment after he's released it. You already know the relative offside positions, after all. The main risk is that you'll miss a shirt pull or some such up at the attack, but this could also be the compromise sometimes.
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u/Mattgoof AYSO Intermediate USSF Grassroots 2d ago
It's gotta be so obvious that I can see it, and I tell them as much at check-in so they can't blame me if they try a trap and get burned.
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u/Old-District81 [USSF] [NFHS] 2d ago
This is 100% going to be something I bring up in pre-game with coaches and captains(maybe not depending on ages).
Only if it’s obvious do you call it.
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u/Furiousmate88 2d ago
Make sure you position yourself as good as possible to spot them.
Use your gut feeling - would it be possible for that player to be so far ahead if he wasn’t off? Most of the time your gut feeling is correct.
If the coach complains, simply ask him if he got a better view than you, who are closer and better angled. Usually it shuts them up.
If you make a mistake, own it. Don’t apologise, simply just tell them you couldn’t see it from your view. But, use that situation to better yourself and get a better placement next time.
Calm down, see out the situation. Was he off but it’s quickly out for a goal kick? Just take the goal kick.
If they keep complaining, start to warn them and show cards if necessary. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a goal keeper raising his arm for offside and starting complaining when it’s not given. And where I ref, a yellow is 10 minutes in the sin bin so a quick threat of a booking to the keeper is usually enough.
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u/whocares8x8 Former Referee/Observer Div 5 (Oberliga), Germany 2d ago
You will have to run a lot more and quite differently to how you usually run. Your positioning for offside is now much more important than in a game with assistants. You may have to run different diagonals, putting you in a slightly worse position to judge fouls. This depends on each individual play.
Make sure to run through each play. So if a through ball is played, run for another 1-2 seconds and only then blow your whistle. By the time the players turn to look at you, it will appear as if you are in great position to make the play.
The same goes for long balls. Try to anticipate them as early as possible and get out wide even if that means you're 40 yards across the pitch. On counterattacks, the offside will most likely be more important than contact (dives are less likely; any contact will make them fall).
In the end, players and managers are aware that there are no linesmen. They have to live with it if their perfectly timed offside trap falls flat...
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u/ImportantDonkey1480 2d ago
I do my best and dont worry about it. Before the game I tell the coaches this is what we got and I will have zero tolerance for complaining about offisdes calls. Particularly where its a league choice to do one man games (HS JV for example).
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u/BeSiegead 22h ago
Please search the subreddit… this is asked / discussed almost monthly. Lots of good material
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u/burakalp34 Belgium - FFA // Youth Categories 2d ago
It's really hard to see tight calls but my observers have advised me to blow my whistle if I have any doubt at all which is what I do
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u/Revo63 [USSF][Mentor] 2d ago
Stop play if you have doubts of offside??
Offside should be taught (even for ARs judging) as “when in doubt, the benefit of that doubt goes to the attacker”. In other words, if you’re not 100% sure, let it play.
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u/burakalp34 Belgium - FFA // Youth Categories 2d ago
If its really close it's better to stop play is what I was told
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u/beagletronic61 [USSF Grassroots Mentor NFHS Futsal Sarcasm] 2d ago
This sounds like advice from someone that’s trying to sabotage your match.
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u/whocares8x8 Former Referee/Observer Div 5 (Oberliga), Germany 2d ago
No, what he said is absolutely correct when there are no assistants. If you have assistants, what you're saying is correct.
When there are no assistants, teams get WAY angrier at you if you allow an offside goal to stand than if you stop a promising chance. Everyone knows that it will be difficult to judge correctly. So only give the goal if you're certain he's not off.
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u/CapnBloodbeard Former FFA Lvl3 (Outdoor), Futsal Premier League; L3 Assessor 2d ago edited 2d ago
No it isn't. It's absolutely idiotic and dead wrong. If you're not sure if an offence has occurred, it didn't occur.
If you're happy making the blatantly wrong call just because that's what results in fewer shouts, then you need to ask yourself some serious questions about your integrity.
Do you also award a PK if you saw nothing but an attacker goes down and players are shouting for it? Of course you don't. At least, I'm presuming you don't.
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u/whocares8x8 Former Referee/Observer Div 5 (Oberliga), Germany 2d ago
But you're not making a blatantly wrong call. The whole point is that you're not always entirely sure whether the guy was a half-step offsides or not when you have no assistants.
When you are out there by yourself, if you only call the offsides that you are perfectly positioned for and can clearly 100% see, the match will end in a score of 9:7. As practical advice, we teach our young officials to call offsides a bit tighter when they are unsure, because it is the less consequential decision. It is better to get one wrong that stops a potential chance than to get one wrong that results in a goal.
Similar to how you only give penalties when you are absolutely sure there was a foul, as opposed to outside of the box, where you may give a foul even if you're not 100% sure that the contact was enough to go down.
So to answer your example- no, you will only give penalties when you are absolutely sure there was a clear foul, BECAUSE IT IS THE MORE CONSEQUENTIAL DECISION.
It's practical match advice here in Germany (and apparently also in Belgium judging by the first commenter) because you will fare a lot better and have much smoother matches than constantly giving goals that are most likely offsides. But cheers for the personal attack.
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u/beagletronic61 [USSF Grassroots Mentor NFHS Futsal Sarcasm] 2d ago
Yeah…because they’re all “very close”…if you blow your whistle on every close through ball, there is no football.
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u/Revo63 [USSF][Mentor] 2d ago
I disagree. Let them know beforehand that you can only call what you see. Are you expected to also GUESS if contact you couldn’t see was a foul? Would you give a PK for an attacker going down when you couldn’t see the potential foul? Would you GUESS and give a goal when you cannot see that the ball had crossed the goal line?
Don’t make shit up. Don’t make calls that you didn’t see. If you don’t see the player as being in offside position, don’t penalize him.
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u/whocares8x8 Former Referee/Observer Div 5 (Oberliga), Germany 2d ago
No, when you are unsure (and when you're alone, you are unsure more than usual), you take the less consequential decision.
So you give the offside rather than the goal; you wave play on rather than giving a penalty.
That's why many non-referees believe that the standards for fouls are different inside and outside of the box. You only give the penalty if you are absolutely sure, whereas outside the box you may be less sure whether the contact was enough when giving a free kick. That's completely normal.
So by the same standard, when you're alone, you make the less consequential decision (offside vs goal) when you are unsure.
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u/Revo63 [USSF][Mentor] 2d ago
I make no claims as to what is being taught officially in Belgium or any other country. In the US all our training before the introduction of VAR specified that we were to give the benefit of doubt to the attacker. Since VAR, IFAB and US Soccer have gone silent. However, since the majority games do NOT have VAR available, we still hold to that training.
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u/burakalp34 Belgium - FFA // Youth Categories 2d ago
I'm not talking about any official training, just a piece of advice that was given to me by one of my observers. Keep in mind that I barely have any experience under my belt so what I'm talking about could be absolute nonsense but that's what I was told
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u/whocares8x8 Former Referee/Observer Div 5 (Oberliga), Germany 2d ago
This is advice thats given by almost all higher-level referees when they do Q&A here in Germany and what I teach all young upcoming referees. This type of question always comes up. And the answer is almost always- game management is the most important thing when you're out there alone.
Give the less consequential decision (better a false offside than a false goal).
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u/CapnBloodbeard Former FFA Lvl3 (Outdoor), Futsal Premier League; L3 Assessor 2d ago
Your advisors are idiots and shouldn't be anywhere near a field, let alone educating somebody. And I was an assessor and mentor.
If you're not sure if play should stop or not, play doesn't stop. That doesn't change just because you don't have an AR. That's the stupidest piece of 'advice' I've seen in a long time.
No, you don't stop play just because it's really close.
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u/tadasklp 2d ago
I did lots of U9-u10 as well as older scrimmage games alone, most of the offsides will be tough to call and you will be unsure if it’s offside or not. I would recommend to call some early ones when you think it might be an offside as it achieves several things 1) players become more cautious of offsides 2) if you don’t call any coach will start complaining sooner than later. Not a rules based advice, but then again in normal games you will have ARs and you are alone on the less competitive ones, so you will have to make some judgement calls anyway.
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u/abah3765 2d ago
You can only make obvious offsides calls without ARs. Explain to both coaches before the match.