[Offside] A goal ruled out after being judged within a continuous passage of play in which two shots were blocked

This is an excellent decision by the assistant referee, who judged the offside calmly within a continuous passage of play. There are two points worth looking at in this scene. 1. Judging the contact in midfield First, look at the challenge in midfield from which the incident began. Several players go to ground, but the referee judged this to be fair contact and allowed play to continue. Letting contact of this kind go as fair is, I think, one of the things that make a match come alive. This scene starts from an excellent piece of judgement. 2. Judging the offside This was an extremely difficult incident. First, in relation to the shot by the player cutting inside from the left, look at Omiya's No. 9. If No. 9 had been in an offside position, then either they were blocking the goalkeeper's view of that shot, or, since they reacted to the loose ball and played it, an offside offence would be committed in either case. This too was very difficult to judge. Immediately after No. 9's shot was saved by the goalkeeper, No. 16, who was nearby, reacted to the loose ball and put it into the goal. It was at this moment that the assistant referee raised the flag. Looking closely, it can be seen that at the moment No. 9 took their shot, No. 16 was ahead of the ball. This confirms that the offside decision was correct. Within a continuous passage of play in which the goalkeeper made two saves, the assistant referee calmly sorted out each phase and judged that there had been an offside offence. I think it was an excellent decision.