The Ref Stop

World Cup China vs England

The second phase bit.
Offside position is judged always at the last play or touch of a team mate, or deliberate play of an opponent.
So the fact, As you say, the player had walked back onside is irrelevant because the ball was not played or touched by a team mate or deliberately played by an opponent before she became involved in active play.
Yeah, I think my only apparent mistake was regarding how a second phase is defined. I would always ignore a defender's slight deflection if a player is offside at the point that a pass was made by a team mate. But yes, even if the deflection changes the direction completely it has to be deliberate, that's what I was overlooking. Thanks again. [I now remember years ago in a referee meeting I questioned whether, if a pass was played sideways (even backwards) towards a team mate and it hit an opponent who deflected it in a different direction to another team mate who was in an offside position - would we give the offside. The answer was yes, which surprised me at the time]
 
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The Ref Stop
Yeah, I think my only apparent mistake was regarding how a second phase is defined. I would always ignore a defender's slight deflection if a player is offside at the point that a pass was made by a team mate. But yes, even if the deflection changes the direction completely it has to be deliberate, that's what I was overlooking. Thanks again
And the reality is that how much control it takes to be considered deliberate by the defender has been quite a moving target . . .
 
Fairly poor decision, for mine, on the stroke of halftime to rule out England's fourth.

#2 in an offside position when ball is crossed into the PA, but ball is then contested by a defender and an attacker. Defender gets a head in it, but it appears onside attacker also gets a touch. #2, now onside, plays the ball.

After another touch, the ball is laid off to the goalscorer who slots home.

The ground announcement then added to the confusion - 'is this thing on? Yeh, so #2 was in an offside position. No goal.'

Haha that's right. That was the Aussie lass. Couldn't be more Aussie if she tried.
 
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