The Referee

It’s the first day of the season your Assistant Referee,  the below incident from the Holland vs Uruguay Semi Final happens, what are you giving Goal or Offside.

This incident caused quite a mix of opinions on twitter during the game.  The Media and TV commentators were going straight away for offside.   However my first inital thoughts was onside, the player even on one of the replay appeared to be level (16seconds in that clip).   Even watching the clip again and again, the right foot is ahead of the defender, although the rest of the body is level. So about 2 foot of the player maybe offside. 

•  There is then the question  is he attempting to play the ball or to move his leg out of the way? 
• What about the fact that the ball has come of the defender? 
• Now was the attacker also blocking the keepers view?

Now you’ve considered all that, think about how long it has taken you to consider it.  Now you’ll have a better appreciation as to what an Asssistant Referee has to consider in a few seconds.