If you’re watching the World Cup this month, you’ll certainly encounter the offside rule. What's “offside” mean?
The offside rule in soccer is mostly about passing: in a nutshell, it says you can’t pass the ball ahead of the defense. More specifically, it says you cannot receive the ball or interfere with play if you are:
What's that look like?
Here's a soccer pitch. The attacking side is in white, the defense in blue. You can click to see the offside area—the part of the pitch where an attacking player would be offside.
On a normal attack, some attacking players will try to get forward, close to the goal, so they can score more easily.
However, if an attacking player gets too far forward, they'll go offside, and if the ball is then passed to them, play will stop and the defending team gets the ball.
But what matters is where the players are when the pass starts, not when they pick up the ball. If the player starts his runafter the ball is kicked to them, the pass is legal and the attacking player is in a dangerous position.
Drag the players around to see how their positions affect who's offside.