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Pardon the ignorant question but...why is offsides a penalty? I'm sure it's always been this way, but it seems to reward poor defence (letting the offence getting behind you). I imagine it has to do either with: (1) wating to eliminate "cheap" goals or (2) encouraging forwards to run back and play some defence (and thus allowing defenders to move up and put more pressure forward).
Without the offside rule, attackers would hang as close to the opposition goal as possible, in order to counter this, the defenders would have to stay with them, and you would get a ridiculous situation of two groups of players at opposite ends of the pitch and long balls being hoofed from one side to the other.
The offside rule ensures a more flowing and attractive game, in essence. Since catching strikers offside is a very risky and coordinated skill to execute by defenders, the rule does, in fact, reward good defence.