“Offside!” The referee is resolute. My son stares at him. “How was that offside?” I see him thinking. But the referee is right.
The trainer of my son’s team – JO13-1 – shakes his head: “You should show your son more matches,” he advises. “Then he understands better what offside is.”
The problem is: since the children play on an entire field, the offside rule also applies. And my son is a pointer. He listened carefully to me for a long time: “Go and stand against the goalkeeper, the ball will come.” That ball always came a few times per game. And he scored like crazy.
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But that kite no longer holds true. “Be careful offside!” I hear myself shouting. My son, hanging as always near the enemy goalkeeper, reacts annoyed. He quickly runs back to the area in front of the opponent’s last man. Too late, opportunity gone.
Fathers on the sidelines grumble. “It’s just like that throw-in,” says one. “They only do that from a certain age. You will see that that also goes wrong.”
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These are Rotterdammers, so criticism of anything is never far away. This also applies to the linesman of the opposing team, who, just like the football players, regularly seems to be at odds with the offside rule. “Hey, are you blind or something?” he then gets things thrown at him, or similar comments. Fortunately, I am considered too old to fill in as a linesman on Saturdays, because it is not fun.
Then Hamza breaks through on the right. He passes his opponents as if they were not there. “Walk along!” I shout to my son. He rushes to the penalty area. “Beware of offside!” I warn. The ball occurs. Boom. Goal. My son raises his arms in the air and laughs: “Nice, no offside.”
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