Here is what my "defending" actually was. One line: if you are closest to the ball, run at it; otherwise stand in your formation slot. One man chased. Ten jogged home. That is not a defence, that is a queue.
The fix was the same idea that made 11v11 work. Who goes to the ball, who covers his escape, who picks up which man: only something looking at all eleven can answer that. So the Team Brain decides, and players execute. Four jobs, handed out ten times a second:
- Press. Go and put him under it.
- Cover. Sit on his route home.
- Mark. Pick a man up, goal-side, on a leash.
- Hold. Your job is the block.
The one I like most is cover. The second man does not dive at the same ball. He takes away the escape. Together they are a trap, a double team that still has a body behind it. That is how a real pair defends. Marking is zone-anchored: pick up the man in your area, but wander too far and you let him go and get back in shape. And interceptions? I never wrote them. Sitting goal-side in the passing lane is the interception position. Put defenders in the right place and it just happens.
Offside
Offside is not a place, it is a moment. It is judged the instant your team-mate plays the ball, and only counts if you then receive it. So the game watches the ball change hands: when it leaves a boot, it snapshots who is beyond the last defender. Get caught and it is a real restart: a free kick, the other side pushed ten yards off the ball, taker over it, short or long. You cannot be offside from a throw-in, goal kick or corner, and that is in there too, because it is in the actual laws.
The strikers know about it now. Not banned from it, aware of it. Passers avoid feeding a man who is beyond the line, and attackers prefer to hold it. They still get caught sometimes. That is football.
Every long goal kick got flagged offside. You cannot be offside from a goal kick; I had written that rule, it just never fired. The keeper is standing on the ball when he kicks it, so he registered as touching it the instant the whistle went and ate the no-offside exemption before the ball had left his boot.
And my favourite football bug ever: on a goal kick, the AI camped its whole team on my 18-yard box, centre-backs included, which meant the offside line was in my own half. My striker was offside standing in the centre circle. The block follows the ball, and the ball was at their end. But it is a dead ball, and you cannot be offside from a goal kick, so camping on the box just means I launch it over your head. Real defenders drop off. Now they do.
Shipped: press / cover / mark / hold · offside detection + free kick · AI offside awareness