As Ted Lasso said to Trent Crimm when the British journalist asked the American coach if he could explain the offside rule in the second episode of the Apple TV show: “It ain’t easy to explain, but you know when you see it.” Well, we’ll try to explain the offside rule better than Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s attempt to define obscenity, the phrase to which Lasso was referring.
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In fact, Law 11 of international soccer’s official rule book is pretty simple:
A player is in a legal position (not offside) when there are at least two players from the other team between her and the opposing goal line at the moment the ball is passed to her.