There were Slovene hands all over three Americans as Landon Donovan’s free kick curled perfectly into the box. And yet the U.S. suffered the 10-finger discount.
Michael Bradley was being blatantly held by Aleksander Radosavljevic. Jozy Altidore was being grabbed by Marko Suler. Maurice Edu was being pawed by Bojan Jokic. Yet the joke ended up being on Edu, when the goal he left-footed high into the net from five feet out, one that should have given the U.S. a win for the ages over Slovenia, was disallowed.
Holy Jim Joyce! Koman Coulibaly, from Mali, 39-year-old referee of his first World Cup game, apparently saw only U.S. defender Carlos Bocanegra with his arm wrapped around Slovenia’s Nejc Pecnik.
In the 85th minute, both teams fighting for their World Cup lives, there was enough going on in the mouth of the penalty area to red card two democracies clean out of the United Nations. But Coulibaly coolly fingered Bocanegra only — at least that’s our best guess — then uncooly either refused or was unable to explain to the Americans why the goal was disallowed, adding to their outrage.
There were too many potential fouls to pick out just one, too many referees in the pool to assign one who can’t explain himself in both participant’s languages. And, too many persons who will say the U.S. only received a fate it tempted by falling behind, 2-0.
In an ugly American first half, Coulibaly missed what could have been a red card, should have been a yellow card, to Clint Dempsey for elbowing Zlatan Ljubijankic. Then the referee gave Robbie Findley a yellow for a hand ball that actually hit off his face.
FIFA, which doesn’t allow referees to explain their calls to the media in any language, which doesn’t even require explanations in a referee’s official written report —ended up with egg on its face for a poorly officiated game. It was decided by a referee who had no peripheral vision or feel for what is a foul when four are happening simultaneously.
Fortunately, England, against Algeria, smelled even worse than Coulibaly, settling for a nil-nil result that may make yesterday’s robbery null and void. All the Americans must do to advance to the knockout round is beat a Algeria, which hasn’t scored in two games.
The only justice was that at the end of the day, the U.S. still had its World Cup fate in its own untrembling hands.