I come from the world of hockey where offsides is a lot simpler. The puck goes in before an attacking player. I think the hard part about it is the ref is supposed to be looking in two spots at the same time in football. He has to see where the deepest attacking player is when the ball is struck, which makes it quite difficult I would imagine.

For an assistant referee in football it is all about pace. Stay in line with the last defender (in general) and it makes it "easier", it is when the AR is out of alignment that it gets very tricky.

Offsides in rugby union anyone? A nightmare!

Field hockey removed the offside rule years ago, to no real detriment, actually its probably better for it.

I sense an ironic World Cup final coming. The pragmatic Dutch knocking off the artistic German side. '74 flipped.

"Offsides in rugby union anyone? A nightmare!"
-Play to the whistle Jonno

What I like about Rugby and wish it could be brought in to Football is that *only* the Captain is allowed to approach the ref when challenging the call. The only other players allowed near are those called over by the ref. Oh, and the video ref is used by the on-field ref.


Just wanted to say it's a nice touch to have the box at the top of the screen with the countdown time to world cup final

I'm so excited! The Netherlands is in the final and I really hope they win. I lost a good friend who lived in Haarlem until he passed away this year so I'd love them to win for him. (He'll be watching...) But if Spain wins it'll be great to see a new country win.

Go Nederlands!

The tension is building up nicely here in Amsterdam and most of my work colleauges think the Spanish have got this World Cup sown up, but I have my doubts and actually think that the Cloggies can pull this one off. If they do then the Dutch government will have to declare the following Monday a 'Feestdag' in other words a national holiday. Can't wait!

Hi Leo, I knew the Dutch hadn't won the WC before. I was just looking on the bright side of the Dutch losing! If they lose then at least a country who hadn't won it before will have it. I still want the Dutchies to get a holiday for winning tho. Let's just hope it's a good clean game with no diving... and that if I have to work that night it'll be quiet enough for me to watch! I'm even knitting an orange scarf to wear on Sunday night

It would be the biggest thrill for any of the two countries to win, as said before neither of them have done so in the past. Spain is still celebrating like crazy last nights win, as it was a dream come true for them to beat the mighty Germans, if Spain would win, with the way things are over here we would have a weeks holiday . I am sure the final will be a fantastic game - and hopefully it wont have to be decided by penalties .

No head-butts either!

Forget the soccer, over here everyones talking about that damn octopus!

Guess what? He's in most papers in India too There was a huge photo of him in one of India's leading dailies today with a DPA article headlined "Spain worried about safety of octopus Paul"

http://thehindu.com/sport/football/article506117.ece

What's German for 'calamari'?

The octopus was on BBC TV a couple of nights ago. But last night we saw a rival - a parrot in Singapore who apparently also has a 100% prediction record so far and who picked the Netherlands to win the final.

Parrot V Octopus may be more exciting, eh?

The Spanish for the win ....and Octopus Paella if He or the Bird dares to disagree

Spain 1-0
THey deserved it. I'm Dutch but that's not what Dutch football is about. Playing cynical football its cost us plenty of titles but this time we were the culprits.
Robben really needs to learn to kick the ball, rather than fall over.
Whining about a deflection from a free kick was a little churlish given they should have been down to nine men by then anyway. Hopefully the experiment in Dutch grind ends here, better to lose gloriously than win like that.

On an aside it leaves only one side undefeated in the entire tournament...New Zealand!
Well done Spain.

Now were going to see that stupid jumping up and down on the spot celebration no doubt. What is that?!

Soccer - Not a spectator sport - but fun to play

"Robben really needs to learn to kick the ball, rather than fall over." - quogequox

The irony is that Robben didn't go down at a goal scoring opportunity when he was fouled by Puyol, who should have been sent off. Because Robben didn't go down, Howard Webb failed to give Puyol the card he deserved. This is why players always go down...the referees have made a rod for their own back.

The Spanish performance was hardly more elegant than Holland's. Throwing people to the floor off the ball by Iniesta who should have received a yellow card and didn't. By taking his shirt off (a ridiculous rule) he should then have been sent off.

From what I can see of it, Howard Webb was too lenient with Spain but was quick to pull out the cards for Holland. He also missed a critical corner decision and possible free kick before the Spanish scored. It is a sad way to end the competition.