"Not since 1994″, a delighted George Hamilton told RTÉ viewers tonight, "Have Italy lost their opening match in a major football finals". His delight in sharing that nugget of trivia was, of course, not unrelated to the fact that a certain Raymond Houghton (scorer of that Italy-smashing goal) was sitting beside him in the commentary box. The perfect excuse (as if one were needed) to have a look at the below…for the four thousandth time:
Keen observers may have noticed that the idiosyncratic American commentary team refer to "Ireland" as "England" (sure why not?), while simultaneously coining the term "chipper" to describe Houghton's strike ("Awesome chipper from England!!").
But I digress. Our own Orange Fergal has already waxed lyrical about the virtues of the Dutch performance so there's no need for me to add my own plaudits. Instead I'd like to invoke my inner football nerd (not a difficult task) and discuss the finer points of the contemporary offside rule. Exciting stuff lies ahead.
Fergal is not alone, I'd imagine, in describing the first Dutch goal (scored by Holland's most equine player) as "so obviously offside that you’d be doing it a favour if you called it dubious". On first glance, that seems a fair assessment. On second glance (in slow motion), it seems an even fairer assessment. He was miles off, surely?
Well, maybe not. The good folks in RTÉ headquarters got hold of a couple of (unnamed) former referees on the phone and asked them to explain it all. These mystery authorities basically said that though Christian Panucci got clobbered out of play (by his own goalkeeper) in the build up to the goal he was still somehow "active" as he'd left the pitch without the referee's permission. Curiouser and curioser.
The Guardian's live text coverage of the game is worth referring to here. After having a flick through a dog-eared copy of the FIFA rulebook they uncovered the following rather head-spinning law:
"A defender who leaves the field during the course of play and does not immediately return must still be considered in determining where the second to last defender is for the purpose of judging which attackers are in an offside position. Such a defender is considered to be on the touch line or goal line closest to his or her off-field position. A defender who leaves the field with the referee's permission (and who thus requires the referee's permission to return) is not included in determining offside position."
I told you it was going to be exciting! So basically, because Panucci didn't holler "Hey Ref! Do you mind if I get punched in the face by Gigi Buffon before rolling semi-conscious off the pitch?" he was deemed to have left the field without permission. As a result, his position (as far as the off-side rule is concerned) was "considered to be on the touch line or goal line closest to his…off-field position". From that very technical perspective then, Van Nistelrooy was onside and the decision to award the goal was a correct one!
Me feel sleepy. Me need lie down…
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