USA Completes Stunning Comeback Against Slovenia, Then Gets Royally F*cked By Terrible Referee

The USA soccer team fell behind 0-2 in the first half against Slovenia this morning and looked like a lifeless bunch at half time. Team captain Landon Donovan would not let his team go gently into the night however and scored a terrific goal early in the second half to cut the lead to 1-2. The USA played their hearts out for the rest of the contest and were rewarded for their effort with an 82' equalizer by coach's son Michael Bradley. The US appeared to have taken a 3-2 lead several minutes later as Maurice Edu buried a shot off of a Donovan free kick from just outside the box. However, the referee had blown the whistle and disallowed the goal despite the fact that the replay showed not a single infraction on the US side during the kick. In fact the only call that could have been made was on a Slovenian defender who was holding Bradley which should have resulted in a penalty kick. The rest of the match finished without much excitement as the US appeared a bit deflated after the bad call.

Referee Koman Coulibaly made a mockery of officiating throughout the entire contest. He missed a number of important fouls, gave entirely too many harsh yellow cards to players to both sides, was slow in making some obvious calls and made at least half a dozen phantom calls including a terrible handball call on the USA's Robbie Findley (that clearly went off of his face) resulting in his suspension for the next match for getting his second yellow. The US team is undoubtedly happy to have earned the draw and kept their hopes of advancing beyond group play alive but having the potential game-winner disallowed really seemed to take the wind out of their sails in the final minutes. That replay will be shown again and again and Coulibaly will certainly be criticized for the rest of the tournament.

As disappointed as I was at that no-goal, I have to admit that the world just saw karma at its finest. The US would have lost their opener to England if it wasn't for G Robert Green gift wrapping one of the softest goals in recent memory. Those two breaks certainly balance each other out and while it would have been nice to see the boys in blue grab a win and 3 points in group play, they really can't be upset with the position they are in now, especially after getting behind by two goals early. The US is now hoping for a draw between England and Algeria to give them the best chance of advancing and really need a win in their final game to have a go at this. At this point though, a lot is out of their hands.