The Offside Rule

Now listen carefully. This is really important. If you don't get this you might as well give up now. It not that hard but people get worried about it. Its the offside rule.

You will probably find this easiest if you are sitting at a table. You will need some props. A sugar bowl (empty), vinegar bottle, salt and pepper pots, a bottle of ketchup and a bottle of brown sauce (glass or plastic). Oh and a malteser.

Now put the sugar bowl at the far end of the table with the bowl bit facing towards you. Put the vinegar bottle directly in front of it. Now put the salt and pepper pots in front of these two, say one on the left and one on the right. Put the ketchup in front of them and the brown sauce just in front of you.

Now Ketchup and Brown Sauce are attacking. Salt and Pepper are defending. Vinegar is the goalie. Brown Sauce kicks The Malteser forwards and Ketchup runs forward, past Salt and/or Pepper and gets The Malteser. Shoots. GOAL!

Same scenario except this time, Ketchup starts running before Brown Sauce kicks The Malteser. He runs past Salt/and or Pepper just before Brown Sauce kicks The Malteser. He gets The Malteser. Shoots. NO GOAL! Reason? The offside rule.

The offside rule says there must be two of the defending team between the opposition and the goal before the ball is kicked. Once it is kicked it is fine to run forwards. It is to stop goal hanging.

So - no Salt AND Pepper, no goal!

See its easy!

That's the offside rule.

And this rule, the offside rule, leads to the offside trap. Its a trick Salt and Pepper play on Ketchup and Brown Sauce. One or both of them run forwards just beforeThe Malteser is kicked by Brown Sauce, past Ketchup, thus putting Ketchup offside.

And that's the offside trap.

Next post I'll tell you about how much I hate football.