By Erin Irish
An offside penalty can only happen to a team playing in the offense position, i.e., the team that is trying to score. When the offending team is offside, it means an offensive player has gone beyond the final defending player (intentionally or unintentionally) and can unfairly attack upon goal. When a referee notices an offside player affecting play, she holds up a flag to stop play. To restart play, the defending team is awarded an indirect free kick and now becomes the offense.
