A World Without Offsides?

[TimTheEnchanter]

Among the majority american crowd who proclaims soccer to be "too boring" (with whom I disagree heartily, but that's beside the point) one theme I keep hearing is that the Offsides rule sucks and takes the excitement out of the game by putting an end to so many breakaway runs.

My thought was that without the offsides rule to force the offensive players away from the goal, teams would play back so tight defensively, there'd be no chance at a breakaway and the game would be even more boring as teams just kept clearing the ball, sending only a few players forward to try for a lucky goal.

So, my question for those of you far more knowledgeable about the game than me: What would happen if the Offsides rule were eliminated?

 

[TheBladeRoden]

Soccer would be more exciting if they used two balls.

 

[ummmm........]

But then what would happen to the play of the second ball when the first ball went out of play . . .

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

Soccer would be more exciting if they used two balls.

Thanks for the help. I'm not looking for ways to make the game more exciting. I'm trying to get some more educated opinions on a suggestion I think would be counterproductive to it's stated intent. I realize it's not something that would ever be adopted, I'm just dealing with the hypothetical to try to understand the game better.

 

[BCLG100]

that'd be awfull! you'd have people who would just stand around the box the whole time and wait for the ball to be punted up to them.

no offside rule imo would make the game more boring.

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

that'd be awfull! you'd have people who would just stand around the box the whole time and wait for the ball to be punted up to them.

no offside rule imo would make the game more boring.

That was what came to my mind.

Obviously the offside rule is there for a reason, and in return we have the offside trap

 

[Elta]

That was what came to my mind.

Obviously the offside rule is there for a reason, and in return we have the offside trap

QFT
10 char

 

[pboily]

But defenders could stay back so that the cherry pickers' edge is minimized.

 

[Gr3yL3gion]

What I want to see is that the ball is forced to play in the opponents half after a certain amount period of time, and the ball can't go back to the defensive half, kind of like basketball, just to encourage offensive play.

 

[kronic]

Football without offsides would suck.

 

[woodelf]

I'd settle for the refs calling no offsides if it's close. In the WC it seems the "tie" has never gone with the offensive player.

 

[ThERat]

I'd settle for the refs calling no offsides if it's close. In the WC it seems the "tie" has never gone with the offensive player.

I agree with this basically, I thought they said in doubt for the attacker, but it seems they reversed it this time. Clearly the linesmen have trouble keeping up with the pace of the game. maybe there should be someone using a monitor and talking to the linesman over the headset. This should be possible. Or maybe not...

 

[Inter4]

The offside rule is intrinsecal to the game we call football.

Americans don't like it because for them an exciting game is one that ends 110-90, or 21-14, or 9-7. That's the beauty of football. A game can end 0-0 and it can be the most beautiful game you have seen in your life.

If you eliminate the offside rule, like many have said, forwards would just stand near the goal and wait for people to pass them the ball and the defenders would aways stay behind to keep fwds from scoring.. it would just be ugly. The offsid erule gives balance to the game.

 

[Syterion]

Taking away offsides reduces the need for creativity that I, and I am sure many others, love to see. A great through pass is beautiful.

 

[MCdread]

Eliminating offsides would result in a game like handball, with offensive actions clearly defined, ie, when one team would come to the attack "en masse", leaving a couple of players to mark man to man the forwards that would stay in their half, while the other defended in front of the goal "en masse", except for said forwards on the other side of the pitch, and vice-versa, with slow transitions towards the other goal, unless a long pass was possible to one of those "abandoned" forwards. Or, as Platini kindly put it, a "game for idiots"...

 

[Marshy]

Yeah, it would be awful without offsides. The game would be pretty chaotic with no defensive line. Players all over the pitch. Players surrounding the goalie to prevent him seeing the ball.

The man marking of attackers would become essential. And as Synterion notes you'd never see those glorious perfectly timed through-balls that split a defence in two. Players like Micheal Owen would be out of a job!

 

[Rik Meleet]

you bunch of conservatives !!!

It would change the game, but not ruin it - au contraire. Eliminating off-side makes a more open game and skills like speed, passing, technique, finishing will become more important - and that cannot be a bad thing.

If teams just have their strikers mark the goalkeeper then the midfield will be more open for players to use. Off-side is limiting play unneccesarily.

My opinion.

 

[col]

It would be an absolute disaster. We used to play like that as kids. Midfield would no longer exist. Formations would be 5 - 0 - 5. 5 wellyers and 5 welly chasers.

Defence would consist of tall players who can head the ball and kick it a long way.
Attack would consists of tall forwards who pack the penalty area and wait for the ball to arrive.

Not the kind of game I would want to watch.

The offside rule encourages teams to play through midfield and forces forwards to time their runs. It allows the small skilful player to play a part. It places a premium on getting behind the defense.

 

[MamboJoel]

At the begining there were no offsides. And you had 2 groups of players in front of each goal. They added the offside rule so that the game would be played in the entire field.
Note that at the begining, the rule was that you had to have 3 defenders between you and the goal line. Now it's only 2 (99.99% of the time a defender and the goalkeeper).

 

[Mega Tsunami]

I was just googling about t’internet wondering about the offside rule and came across this:

Melvyn Bragg (Lord Bragg of Wigton) is a well known (in this country) writer and broadcaster especially on the Arts and other high brow matters and he wrote a book called “Twelve books that changed the world” and one of the 12 books was:
Book of Rules of Association Football (1863) by a group of former English public-school men

I came across this piece where he talks about the writing of the rule book and I thought it was terrific and maybe some of you would like to read it :
Linky

FWIW his 12 books were:
TWELVE BOOKS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Principia Mathematica (1687) by Isaac Newton
Married Love (1918) by Marie Stopes
Magna Carta (1215) by members of the English ruling classes
Book of Rules of Association Football (1863) by a group of former English public-school men
On the Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin
On the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1789) by William Wilberforce in Parliament, immediately printed in several versions
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) by Mary Wollstonecraft

Experimental Researches in Electricity (three volumes, 1839, 1844, 1855) by Michael Faraday
Patent Specification for Arkwright’s Spinning Machine (1769) by Richard Arkwright
The King James Bible (1611) by William Tyndale and 54 scholars appointed by the king
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) by Adam Smith
The First Folio (1623) by William Shakespeare