Why Luis Suarez's goal for Inter Miami was valid even though he was offside

Inter Miami are playing their first match in the friendly tour in Asia. They are participating in the Riyadh Season Cup, a tournament that is usually played during the first weeks of each year in Saudi Arabia. There, David Beckham's side are competing against the two best teams in the Pro League this season: Al-Hilal, leaders of the standings, and Al-Nassr, who are in second place.

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The Herons' first opponent is Al-Hilal, who despite the absence of Neymar Junior due to the serious knee injury he suffered in October, have proven to be a competitive team, with top players such as Aleksandar Mitrovic and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. For Gerardo Martino's team, it is a good opportunity to test themselves against important rivals and improve ahead of the start of the 2024 Major League Soccer season.

In the first minutes Inter Miami were surprised by the Saudi team, who controlled the ball and created several opportunities to score. They got the opener after 10 minutes, when Sergej-Milinkovic-Savic set up Aleksandar Mitrovic, who netted with a soft right-footed shot. And that wasn't all, as moments later Abdullah Al-Hamdan grabbed a rebound inside the box and doubled the lead.

That seemed to wake up The Herons, who from that moment on improved their performance and went in search of a goal that would bring them closer on the scoreboard. And that happened in the 34th minute, when Luis Suarez scored. However, initially the linesman raised the flag indicating that the Uruguayan striker was offside, but after the VAR review, referee Edina Alves Batista gave the goal. This caught the attention of some fans, as the TV replays showed Suarez clearly ahead of the last rival defender. The explanation for the goal being valid is that the previous pass is not from an Inter Miami player, but from an Al-Hilal defender, and so it is not considered offside.

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Now they are far behind on the scoreboard

After Suarez's goal, it looked like Inter Miami might score the equaliser. However, the opposite happened: moments later Al-Hilal doubled the lead through Michael, who took advantage of a mistake by goalkeeper Drake Callender to score with a header.