Koman Coulibaly, the referee in the World Cup match between the United Stated and Slovenia, needs to have a chat with Jim Joyce. Not only was he consistently bad throughout the match, but he showed Robbie Findley a nonsense yellow card for a hand ball in the box, and he stole a goal that would have capped an unbelievable comeback by the United States.
The hand ball called against Findley was simply wrong. The ball did look like it glanced off of his hand, but that was only after it STRUCK HIM IN THE FACE. The contact was purely incidental and in no way should Findley have been penalized. This would have been a terrible call in and of itself, but it is even more egrigeous due to the fact that it was Findley's second yellow of the tournament. As a result, he will be suspended from the United States' critical game against Algeria. Surely the U.S. will appeal the call, and hopefully FIFA officials will listen to reason and drop the yellow.
Sadly, that was not the worst call of the match. That would have to wait until the 85th minute, when Landon Donovan bent a perfect free kick from just outside the box. Maurice Edu got away from his defender and put the ball in the back of the net for what should have been the 3rd goal for the Red, White, and Blue. However, Coulibaly, possibly driven insane by the jet-engine-decibel-level vuvuzelas, decided to whistle the USA for a phantom foul, disallowing the goal. During the play, Altidore and Bocanegra were clearly fouled by their defenders, not to mention Michael Bradley basically being given the Heimlich maneuver by his man. If anything, there should have been a call against Slovenia.
As with the Findley yellow card, the call would have been bad on its own. Its potentially far-reaching implications, however, make it an even worse decision. The United States were denied 3 points which would have placed them atop Group C and in control of their own destiny. Now the U.S. must await the outcome of this afternoon's England/Algeria match to see where they stand. In addition to watching their own group, the United States now has to pay close attention to Group D as well. The winner of Group C plays the Group D runner up and vice versa. Group D contains the powerful German squad, Ghana, Serbia, and the Socceroos. Germany is certainly the favorite to win the group, and if Coulibaly's call relegates the U.S. to second place and forces them into a match against the Germans, the Americans, if possible, will be even angrier than they are now.
There is a lot of soccer left to be played though, so we will have to wait and see what happens. This World Cup has already seen its share of unlikely moments, the U.S. comeback against Slovenia being one of them. The Americans were already given some hope this morning, as Germany was improbably defeated by the Serbs. To add insult to injury striker Miroslav Klose, one of their best players, was shown a red card, and will be suspended from Germany's next two matches. All we can do is watch and wait to see if the universe has a sense of karma and Coulibaly's call will have a silver lining. Hopefully Coulibaly has some sense of honor and takes a page out of Jim Joyce's book, apologizing to Maurice Edu and the United States for his error, or at the very least explains the call.
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