Leave us Soccer Referees Alone Before I Red Card You All
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In my case an ex-soccer referee and in the case of the man from Mali, Koman Coulibaly, in the near future, he could be an ex-referee too.
His officiating performance at the World Cup in South Africa of the Group C game between the USA and Slovenia, was nothing short of abysmal. I do not say this lightly, when I played, I soon found out that turnovers and mistakes are part of the game, the mistakes I made as a coach with substitutions and team selection are legendary, but refereeing errors are not tolerated.
As a player you are always taught to keep you eye on the ball at all times, referees are instructed to try and stay about 15 yards from the ball, which is impossible when a team counter-attacks at near Olympic speed.
Twenty-fours after the game I have calmed a little, but there is still no doubt that the USA was robbed of it’s greatest victory in World Cup history since the 1-0 annihilation of England in the 1950 tournament in Brazil.
I hollered and screamed at the Ref, but I should be mad at the FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, because they are shocking caretakers of ‘The Beautiful Game‘. Yesterday, because of their fat-cat mentality, their refusal to use technology to get bad-calls reversed, their insistence that game officials should come from every continent whether they are up to it or not, they crushed a dream comeback by the USA and the bad taste will not go away.
Twenty-four hours later the reason for the disallowed goal is not forthcoming from FIFA. Imagine this happening in the NFL, they would have got it right on the field of play by using available technology.
Koman Coulibaly came under a great deal of international abuse. His Wikipedia page was tampered with, it said: “Coulibaly has a burning hatred of The United States” and there were suggestions he was “bribed.”
Irony of ironies Koman Coulibaly was born on the 4th of July.
The USA players protest in vain
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I watched the ‘goal’ several times and each time saw a clear foul.
On an American forward.
Nobody has any idea why he disallowed the goal.
Are referees sponsored? Maybe BP are sponsoring him.
Diabolical decision but, if you play your last game as you played against England and the second half of this game you’ll sail through (which is more than England can say right now)..:-(
It was clear to me that the US player took a dive (by the way, I have yet to see a replay of that in all the outraged coverage on ESPN) and should have been given a yellow card. The free kick never should have been given in the first place. Perhaps the ref was made aware of that fact that he had made a mistake and decided to give a make up call. Refs do it all the time in the NBA and in baseball. I’m sure many feel that the US was robbed, but perhaps if soccer players were not taught to pretend like they’ve been shot every time someone breathes on them, this situation could have been avoided.
Those so called “US soccer fans”, who won’t be able to tell you who wins a game in the world cup after their team is eliminated, should take a look at the entire picture and not just cry and complain about a “goal” that they should never have been in position to get.
Know what you mean about make up calls Mike, especially in soccer, a red card for a wrongly issued red card, penalty for a bad call penalty etc., I remember the free kick being won, cannot recall any diving (I hate diving), but whether or not ruling out the goal was justice, that ref. was not up to the job, he made some shocking calls and it’s not his fault I blame FIFA. If they want top class African officials, send them to a top European league for a couple of years and pay retired top class referees from wherever to go to Equatorial and sub-Equatorial Africa and run referee and coaching schools. African players are flooding into the European leagues and because of the competitive nature of the leagues, African players are becoming world class by the dozen. Referees can get the same exposure and training, it’s all up to FIFA.
Yours and my comments could have been a post, do one Mike, do one.
Holte,
I wish I could find something to write a post about. Politics has left me with an empty feeling these days. I might do something on a lighter subject. By the way, the best player I’ve seen at the world cup is the Nigerian goalkeeper, by a wide margin. And the most disappointing is Wayne Rooney, who has looked uninspired at best and inept at worst.
You could do what I do when you can’t think of a good topic. Write about nuts and buttholes. Of course from the lack of response I got on that last one it might not be such a good idea…
MH – Don’t give up on the nuts and butts, there is an audience out there, I know there is.
Mycue
African players are coming along in leaps and bounds, I was so sorry to see Ghana playing without Michael Essien, such an inspiration.
Rooney looks like he has lead in his boots, I cannot see how that England team can be lifted. Lethargic is an understatement.
Any time one of my fellow Murkans bitches about Bud Selig — ahem, Karen, ahem 🙂 — I point him or her in the direction of Sepp the Criminal and his cash-filled Blatter.
Just like the inevitable asteroid strike, such a bout of refereeing fuckery is going to happen in the World Cup final that’ll make Klismann’s 1990 dive look tame by comparison. Fuck Coulibaly and fuck FIFA and their disgraceful Luddite mentality.
Sepp’s Blatter is so full of SA Rands he can barely move.
Certain countries FAs, EUFA and FIFA annoy me so much I find it difficult to talk about without a red mist descending. I would willingly go to war to overthrow those bastards.
Sure sounds like there’s a prejudice against USA but on the other hand, a couple weeks ago Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga,was deprived of a perfect game by an umpire mistake Commissioner Bud Selig refused to amend.
That was an unbelievable call Karen and I was stunned that Selig didn’t reverse it. Then again he has always lacked backbone so I guess I’m not that stunned.
Yep, he chose to go with the status quo.