I think the offside no call was correct. I have looked for some sort of official thing from FIFA or the International Football Association Board, but have come up empty.

However, in the USSF (United States Soccer Federation) "Advice to Referees on the Laws of the Game" booklet it says:

A defender who leaves the field during the course of play and does not immediately return must still be considered in determining where the second to last defender is for the purpose of judging which attackers are in an offside position. Such a defender is considered to be on the touch line or goal line closest to his or her off-field position. A defender who leaves the field with the referee's permission (and who thus requires the referee's permission to return) is not included in determining offside position.

There is no way the USSF publishes this if isn't the case for FIFA, but it would be nice to find something official from FIFA.

Van Nistelrooy could easily have faked a foul by Buffon in his first big chance. I think he showed a lot of class there by not going for an undeserved penalty there.

yes that is the FIFA ruling JaredL

Domenech is teh worst (old news tho)
Abidal and Malouda were just painful to watch, not to mention Sagnol who's just not ready/burned ,Benzema had an awful game playin with the net on his back like every time,tryin to get past the all D with short perimeter dribble instead of movement.
it's hard to create anything when your all left side is missing offensively,i don't mind that much Gallas/Thuram stayin back tho

i wish Domenech could grow himself a pair of balls before the Holland game and play some ****in offense, that WC Swiss game didn't taught him ****

Kudos to Romania for accomplishing ,well... a 0-0 performance (wtf)

Therefore the first goal must be classed as onside then. Surely ? Or is this just his get out of jail for making a mistake ? Do you think he noticed he was off the field ?

Along with the rule that JaredL posted (same rule I think) then it'd have to be classed as onside.

It may have been class, or it may have been that he didn't think he would get the call. I lean towards the latter.

QFT

Just to keep this nitty rules talk going, one thing I don't understand is that despite a player naturally going off the field of play from momentum or whatever counting as one of the defenders, it is a cautionable offence to deliberately leave the field of play to put someone in an offside position.

Well he was clearly off balance so going down wouldn't even really count as a schwalbe. Even if it was 20/80 he still could have tried, the fact he didn't shows class imo

QFT.

Well I think today was definitely had the best game in it hope it continues for tomorrows game with Spain.

Go Holland

Does anyone know if any of the Australian tv stations are airing live games? i know sbs are but they are only showing 8 games which sucks

I really hate the Dutch when it comes to football (and only then...) but this game last night was impressive. Very impressive. They are clearly one of the top contenders for the title now.

Engelaar or Gio, imo.

wasnt sneijder MOM?

Well, he sucks. Do you need more?

Van Bommel is a very good player, but he's also a huge *******. Apparently him and v. Basten didn't get along at all so he wasn't picked. Check this: http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=628997

QFT. Was golfing, came in with about 20 minutes elft to hear Pleat rabbitting on about the dreadful offside decision which thery never showed after the game, so I'm thinking shame for the Italians, then I see the replay above and it's wtf?

David Pleat is an absolute clown, both games so far he's been even more apthetic than normal.

Why do you really hate me?

I expected us, me being a cloggie living in the UK, to loose 1-0, 2-1. But what a spirit and what a second goal... Like usual we'll f#ck it up, but still pretty good and i am very proud!

Perhaps you forgot that Ruud could have dived (not unusual for him), and several changes that went near miss.... 8-3 would be more fair, but i doubt if italy would be happy with that result.

Sounds like something Cruijff would say .

"If the Italians scored 3 goals when it was 2-0 the Dutch team would've lost"

or

"If the Italians had scored 1 goal more than the Dutch team they would've won"

Cruijff is know for saying random crap like that, making him look smart while all he says is gibberish.

Cruyff just can't handle not being the center of attention.

Well, you (which means Frank Rijkaard) spat at Rudi Voeller. Twice. I was really shocked to see this at that time, as a kid.
However apart from football I Holland.

What triggered the spitting though? I'd guess some type of racist comment maybe? Anyone know? I recall they were both sent off.

From Wikipedia:
Rijkaard was involved in an unsavoury incident with Rudi Voller when West Germany played the Netherlands in the 1990 World Cup. Rijkaard was booked for a bad tackle on Voller, as Rijkaard took up position for the free kick he spat in Voller's hair. Voller complained to the referee and was booked as well. From the resulting free kick, Voller dived to avoid a collision with Dutch Keeper Hans Van Breukelen although it did also look as if he was diving for a penalty. Van Breukelen was angry at this but Rijkaard again confronted Voller by twisting his ear and stamping on his foot. Both Voller and Rijkaard were sent off but Rijkaard again spat in Voller's hair as they left the pitch and was rumoured to have repeated this on the touchline.

Rijkaard later apologized and Voeller accepted. However, this was a long time ago, I don't want to derail the thread.
It was very nice play by Holland yesterday and I am curious to see if they can repeat this performance against France.

UEFA comfirmed that the first goal was NOT offside