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Rules are meant to be broken. In this case, we can adapt that saying to "Laws are meant to be circumvented or exploited". We know that there is the rule of a law and the spirit of a law as well. In soccer, the "offside trap" is a way for a defence to circumvent the spirit of the offside law, use it to frustrate opponents and break-down promising attacks.

The intention of the offside law was simply to prevent loafing and cherry-picking by attackers. It was meant to punish these actions and ensure that the game was played in an attractive way. The offside trap is a means of artificially placing an attacker in an offside position. It is against the original spirit and intention of the offside law. However, it is permissible and not considered unsporting for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is that it is a high-risk defensive strategy.

The offside trap refers to the entire defensive line pushing up enough to clearly place an attacker in an offside position just before the ball is played to the attacker by a teammate. Usually, a central defender or sweeper would be responsible for co-coordinating the offside trap. Timing is everything, so the designated captain of the defence (sometimes the team captain) would have to be on the ball with his instructions. The defence would have to be very responsive to the instruction to "push" or "step" and move quickly.

For the offside trap to move, the defence must have a collective awareness of their positioning relative to each other and the opposing attackers. The other members of the defending side will normally try to keep either in line or ahead of the defender charged with coordinating the offside trap. When teams play the offside trap, the defensive line is a lot more obvious to spectators.

Playing the offside trap is different from merely pushing up towards the half-line when the opponents are not in control of the ball. Pushing up is just a way to gain territorial advantage and support team members in their opponents' half. On the other hand, the offside trap is a deliberate and calculated strategy designed to gain favourable offside decisions from the assistant referee.

In the split second after the ball is played by a teammate, an attacker and defender can be about two yards from each other even if the attacker is onside. For the assistant referee it is already difficult when at attacker sprints past a stationary defender. A defender moving in the other direction too is a nightmare! The reason is simple. In the split second, the attacker (who may have been onside at the critical moment) appears to have been blatantly ahead of the defence. In moments like these, an inexperienced, jittery, unaware or intimidated assistant referee may be inclined to shoot his flag up at that moment and give the benefit of the doubt to the defending team.

The offside trap is designed to exploit the offside law and perceptual limitations of the assistant referee. If it does not work, the attacker would have a clear run at goal. If it does, the defending team would have a free kick to restart play. The odds of the offside trap working are in the defence's favour, given that the opposite movement of the defenders and attackers provides the distinct impression that the attackers were offside in that blur of motion.

Learn more about this author, Darrell Victor.
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