Pierluigi Collina picked out several examples of superb officiating at his press conference today. They won't get much press, but I reckon some who appreciate match officials read this, so I'll mention them.
While assistants are coming under fire, Collina did not identify the assistants concerned, but paid tribute to the one who kept his flag down for Spain's goal against Croatia, a goal that had Croatian coach Slaven Bilic complaining bitterly about a double offside.
First the ball was played forwards to Iniesta, who was onside by inches and Iniesta then laid the ball cross for Jesus Navas to score. Jesus was also only just onside, but onside they both were and the goal counted. "Two major decisions in one second," Collina said.
When Cesc Fabregas through, Iniesta was onside but Jesus was offside. But there was no offside call because Jesus never got the ball. By the time Iniesta got the ball and passed it, Jesus had moved into an onside position. No offside.
Croatia benefited from a non-offside when they were playing Ireland, when a Croatian forward shot into the penalty area towards a colleague who was in an offside position. The ball was intercepted by Ireland's St Ledger, who sliced his clearance backwards and into the path of a Croatian, who scored. There's no offence here because the Irishman played the Croatian offside with a miscued kick. It wasn't a rebound or a deflection, which would have meant the Croatian would have been penalised for offside.
Indeed Collina said the hardest mistake was in a Greece game when a player who scored was given offside when his whole body was in an offside position apart from his foot. I personally felt that really stretched interpretations of offside to the limit, but he knows a lot more than I do.
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