Reply #38: au contraire

[northzax]

it rewards teams with fast strikers, and penalizes lazy players. If you are fast enough, you can outrun the defense and catch up to a long pass, eliminating the offsides rule would lead to simple cherry picking by lazy strikers, and the defense would never leave the penalty box to stay with them. Offsides actually lengthens the field and makes accurate passing and good midfield play more important.