My Look into Offsides on Corner Kicks
Alright, let’s talk about something I spent a bit of time figuring out recently – this whole offside situation during corner kicks. It started during a weekend game I was watching. There was a corner, a player was practically hugging the goalpost, looked miles offside to me when the ball was kicked, but nothing happened. Play went on. That got me scratching my head.
So, naturally, I started paying more attention whenever a corner kick happened in games I watched afterwards. I was specifically looking for players standing in what would normally be an offside position. And you see it all the time! Attackers often stand really close to the goal line, sometimes even beyond the last defender (not counting the goalie).
Here’s what I observed consistently:
- Player takes the corner kick.
- An attacker is standing past the second-to-last defender (which would usually be offside).
- The ball goes directly to this attacker, or into an area where they play it.
- No offside flag is raised by the assistant referee.
After seeing this happen repeatedly, I double-checked the basic rules just to confirm what I was witnessing. It turns out, it’s pretty straightforward, even if it looks weird at first glance.
The simple takeaway I got is this: You cannot be penalized for being in an offside position if you receive the ball directly from a corner kick. The moment the ball is kicked from the corner arc, the usual offside rules don’t apply to the player receiving that initial kick.
Now, it’s not a total free-for-all forever. What I also noticed is that the offside rule can still come into play almost immediately after the corner. For example:
- If the corner taker passes it short to a teammate.
- That teammate then passes the ball forward to another attacker who was in an offside position when the second pass was made.
- Boom, that’s offside. The immunity only applies to receiving the ball directly from the corner itself.
Or, if the ball comes in from the corner, gets headed or touched by another attacker first, then goes to a player who was offside when that teammate touched it – again, that can be flagged. It’s all about who last played the ball and the player’s position at that moment.
So, yeah, spent some time watching replays and just observing corners closely. It seems counterintuitive at first when you see players so far forward, but the rule is clear once you see it in action a few times. No offside directly from the corner kick itself. Simple as that, really, just needed to see it play out to properly get it.