Why offside was called on Iran goal in controversial ending vs. Egypt to deny World Cup win

There was still a defender behind the ball when Iran scored the goal that seemed like it would get them a FIFA World Cup win on Friday night.

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Offside was called after a VAR review. The goal was disallowed. The match with Egypt ended in a 1-1 draw.

On screenshots of the play, it’s confusing for most fans of the game.

There was clearly an Egypt defender deeper than the attacking player when the ball was hit in his direction. 

But that’s not actually how the whole rule works.

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Why was it offside on Iran?

The rule actually refers to the «second-last defender,» because the goalkeeper is almost always behind the play.

On this play, though, Egypt’s goalie had come out of his net, and he’s no longer the last defender.

So the defender behind the ball more or less becomes like the goalie for the interpretation of this rule.

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And because there wasn’t a second player there, it’s offside.

People think it’s ‘the last defender,’ but the law says ‘the second-last opponent.’ Because the GK had come so far off his line, he wasn’t one of the two deepest defenders. Iran’s scorer was beyond the second-last Egyptian player, so even with one defender on the goal line, he… pic.twitter.com/65WBKW7yYd

— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) June 27, 2026

It’s a brutal break. It’s unlucky. There’s nothing Iran could’ve really done differently here.

But sometimes, the depths of the rulebook work out in your favor, and sometimes they don’t.

Here, Iran was the one so close to a glorious moment, one that was taken away by replay and a sneaky rule.

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