Karl I wonder why the ref did not give that goal

[OJ]

I see why you were confused.

[Karl]

I see why you were confused.

If I am remembering correctly the ref made an error by acceding to his assistant ref's call.

When the player (Adebayor) was initially in an off-side position the ball was not played forward and thus not in his direction and or to him...

...when the defender *played the ball to the player (Adebayor)...Adebayor was in an offside position, however, the ball was *played to him by a defender...and it is clearly stated that a player cannot be off-side when the ball is played or touched to him by a member of the opposing team!

If the initial pass was sent forward by an Arsenal player and the ball was being 'cleared' or even passed back directly by a defender and it then went straight (without 2 or more passes among the defenders) to Adebayor that would be OFF-SIDE! That was not what happened.

...and btw- although the ref had clear sight of what happened he asked the assistant ref to make the decision of off-side or not offside. The assistant ref called off-side and the man in the middle went with him.

*Mi seh played to him...not a wild attempt to clear and the ball ran off the defender's foot! Two different things!

I think you fail to realise that any player (including the goalkeeper - and that means the goalkeeper putting the ball on the ground and the opponent running in from what was previously an off-side position e.g. as bad as...as terrible an off-side position as from the goal-line...coming up behind the goalkeeper and scoring) can play the ball to an opponent and if the ball end up in the goal without any other infringement occur it is a goal!

To me it appeared as if the defender PLAYED the ball to Adebayor!