It has been commonly reported that Iniesta was offside for his goal against the Netherlands at the World Cup final. Now this controversy was brought about due to Torres’ attempted to pass to Iniesta, who was allegedly in an offside position. But the pass was blocked by Rafael van der Vaart, which fell to the feet of Fabregas. who ended up assisting Iniesta goal.
However, having gone through the footage frame-by-frame, I have determined that Iniesta is in an onside position for that pass. I even have an image of this that proves it.
Unfortunately the coverage did not display the offside line for the pass from Torres, as they normally do, and this has resulted in this myth that Iniesta was offside being propagated to the extent that even Iniesta thought he was offside.
So hopefully this will close at least one of the controversies from the final.
Although, Netherlands still can complain that the goal only resulted because Howard Webb didn’t give the corner from the free kick and that the foul by Sergio Ramos on Elia was missed before the goal was scored.
rgs
Guest
the problem never was iniesta, it was the previous one by Torres, it was offside and the play should never has to continue. Everyone knows that, plus we have a corner kick, and a fould on a previous pllay so Webs has always been a controversial referee. On the portugal game it happens the same thing, the spain goal was clearly offside, northing to argue there. You can see in the EURO has been plague from bad calls as well like Ukraine game vs croatia, before goal action the ukraine was offside, after that he wasnt and they called offside and you see the opposite here with Ukraine being the goal dssallowed while spaniards goals wasnt so you can see what wrong call can do to a team. The only reason Spain is beating stadistics is due to referee errors cause a team with just 7 or 8 goals in the torunament with 2 fishy ones and winning the world cup just happen in a crappy world where some people want to live in the stone ages and doesnt want to use the camera technology
dasilva
Guest
Well the article has the picture now. Although it doesn't prove anything as Torres is cut from the picture which was silly editing. To see the complete picture. Click on here http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7879/iniestaonside.jpg
dasilva
Roar Guru
He wasn't in an offside position anyway as the image I have uploaded shows Nevertheless, if the ball was directed at Iniesta and if he was in the offside position then he would have been gaining an advantage
Brian
Guest
He was technically passive as the ball did not get to him. Ironically in the exact same manner that Paraguay had a goal wrongly disallowed in the 41st minute of the quarter-final against Spain
dasilva
Roar Guru
To be honest, it was really a controversy amongst the fans more then anything else. With many comments on youtube, some on The Roar complaining that Iniesta was offside. The pass from Fabregas to Iniesta has no doubts that it was offside. It was the pass before that from Torres to Iniesta that was intercepted by van der vaart that was controversial Anyway here is an article with a quote from Iniesta who believed he was offside http://thearynews.com/english/newsdetail.asp?nid=51997&com=1
stevo
Guest
they showed the replay of the pass on SBS during the final, he was onside. i cant remember seeing any article reporting the pass as being offside? the only controversy that i have seen mentioned regarding the goal is about the corner kick to the dutch which was given as a goal kick to spain just before the goal
dasilva
Guest
The FIFA rules states that the arms don't count in the offside (as you can't play with your hands/arms). However the video shows that part of his head (which does count) was slightly offside. It would have been incredibly harsh. In any case, I think my image (which was a frame before the youtube video) was a better representative and Iniesta looks completely onside there. The Elia free-kick claim - I personally thought it was a foul http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lKKumlaIbs It does look like Ramos did ran into Elia and body checked him rather then the other way around. You do see those given. Nevertheless I do think Netherlands were more fortunate with the referees then unfortunate throughout the final.
Colin N
Guest
I was watching the game and they showed the offside line and it proved the assisstant refereee was correct. Maybe Iniesta's little finger was over it, but that would be very harsh. I believe Webb got the Elia free-kick call correct and it was, at most, a 50-50 call. The only qualms they have is the one that should have been a corner. However, can you seriously say if that call directly led to that goal, especially when you consider the Dutch immediately regained possession of the ball?
dasilva
Guest
Actually the offside line wasn't the controversy in the pass from Fabregas to Iniesta It was the pass from Torres to Iniesta preceding that. I actually found another video that dealt with the issue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_CeEAml8y4 However the video was one frame ahead with the image I prepared below. Actually in the video, Iniesta's head (although his feet was onside) was marginally in an offside position although there's absolutely no way the referee could see that. I thought my image was better because I thought that the ball was already in flight in the youtube link I posted while my image was the moment Torres touched the ball. My image shows that Iniesta was completely onside Nevertheless if it was offside it was incredibly marginal.
dasilva
Guest
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7879/iniestaonside.jpg Sorry this was the image that I tried to embed with my article to try to proved Iniesta was onside
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
dasilva - Of course, you are absolutely correct and Iniesta was not even close to being off-side. Here is a video clip of the goal and the "off-side line" is diplayed at 0:32 seconds into the video clip. I think it is van der Vaart playing Iniesta on-side and, there is another Dutch player in the foreground (looks like van Bommell) and he, too, seems to be playing Iniesta on-side. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8C72BSfz1s
Midfielder
Guest
I always tho he was on side ... the replay I would like is the non free kick 20 sec earlier to Holland... IMO the ref had a great game and should be praised I reckon he got well over 95% of his calls right and Holland were lucky to have 11 players on the field for the second half.