Union Berlin’s interim coach, Marie-Louise Etta, expressed her frustration with the referee’s interpretation of the offside rule, despite securing her first point with the team in a 2-2 draw against Cologne on Saturday in the German Bundesliga.
The controversy surrounding Cologne’s first goal stemmed from an offside position by Saeed Al-Mulla, who attempted to reach a through ball before stopping his run. Assistant referee Stefan Lupp raised his flag, but referee David Schlager allowed Jakub Kaminski to continue play, ultimately leading to a goal by former Union player Marius Bülter.
Etta commented on the incident, saying, “The linesman raises his flag, and the players naturally react accordingly.”
While acknowledging that her team’s defense was affected by Al-Mulla’s movement and the referee’s flag, she admitted that her team had made a serious error, stating, “Of course, you still have to continue playing if the referee hasn’t blown his whistle.” For his part, referee Schlager explained his reasoning to Sky Sports, clarifying that the criteria for determining offside were not met. He said, “For an offside situation to warrant a penalty, one of three criteria must be applied: first, the player must touch the ball, which he did not; second, he must be challenging an opponent for the ball, which also did not happen; or third, he must be interfering with an opponent’s play for the ball, which did not apply here.”
Schlager acknowledged a coordination error with his assistant, who had rushed the decision to raise the flag, stating, “This is something we will work on; the flag was raised a little too early.”
