Analysis: USA-SVN - Coulibaly (MLI)

the referee was not very good. USA were robbed of a goal yes, BUT...the foul that led to the freekick for the disallowed goal was also a bad call.

 

One of those tragedies of soccer....when a ref decides a game instead of players. Feel really badly for the USA team since that was a perfectly good goal and that was only one of many horrible calls. Whoever invited that ref crew to the WC needs to be ashamed of themselves because he simply wasn't up to it.

 

He's looking right at the tussle between Boca and the defender. The BRadley take down is NOT being watched. It's a fair goal. Wow.

 

You said it. I'm feeling that too.

 

Worst referee I have ever seen.

 

90:00 +3
92:30 play is stopped for an injury
93:58 play restarted
94:08 final whistle

?????

Entertaining match, but frustrating given the "curious" calls and non-calls. Still, I'd take this ref over the Spaniard we saw earlier.

 

This is not a defense of the AR, but possibly of Coulibaly: Bradley's head appeared to be in an offside position as he was held and Edu scored. If the AR raised his flag for Bradley, who did not affect play, then the fault was his. Same AR who blew the more difficult actual offside earlier. But for him, USA 3-1. Of course the flow of play woujld have been radically different and the equally bad and excellent US halves only merit a tie.

 

Perhaps I'm on my own here, but this is going to translate to more crap for us US referees, as I'm sure the soccer moms/dads and players out there watch this and are thinking "See, they are all stupid!".

 

Alberto - I believe you have summed up all the emotions I have with your words. As a fan, outrage is all I have. As a referee, I am just bewlidered.

The yellow to Findley was outrageous.
The negation of the Edu's goal for whatever reason(I am still not sure if he was signaling offside or for a foul) was completely incorrect.
Edit to add this as well - the fact that he added no additional time in stoppage after the player from Slovenia was on the ground for what appeared to be an additional minute is just dumbfounding.

I can only assume that this gentleman has seen his last match at the WC 2010.

 

Is there a procedure for requesting an investigation of the refereeing of a match?

Because this pile of dog mess seems to call out for it...

 

I hear ya. But hopefully a month between now and the August preseason tourneys people will chill out and go easy on us... well, okay prolly not but one can hope, right?

 

Factual question, please answer if you know: On the disallowed goal, was there an offside call from the AR or did the center ref call a foul. I was hoping one of the replays would show a wide shot so we could see the AR.

 

My only hope is that the US can still make it out of the group stage. If they end up missing the cut by 2 point or less, there will be a severe outrage from fans and it can only be a problem for the development of soccer as a whole in our nation.

In terms of match fixing: Do you honestly think a nation of 2,000,000 could persuade a referee? That is just bogus. All referees try to do their best at the World Cup. He simply was not up to the task.

Factual points:
Dempsey should have been yellow carded in the first minute. He used his arm as a tool if not a weapon. I feel like the oversight of this caused more problems down the line

Findleys handling? He seemed awfully confident for something he was completely wrong on which brings me to another observation. He had to have called around six infringements on the USA in Slovenia's penalty area. Many of them he was out of position to do. If we, as referees, are going to have that much presence in the area, then we need to be able to have the angle to properly view the fouls which require stronger positioning.

The offside/foul on Edu's goal speaks for itself. Simply a mistake.

 

Nothing to warrant the disallowing of the US's 3rd goal.

Mystery as to why he thought Findley committed an offense and no need for the following yellow card.

This crew was not up to snuff plain and simple.

 

I'm thinking the same thing as I approach an U18 championship game Sunday afternoon.

Then again, I'll make sure to tether a seeing eye dog to the scorer's table before the game and wear dark glasses to set the bar low.

 

I wonder if FIFA will comment on this as they commented after the ARG goal in their first game that they say should not have been allowed because of the holding by a teammate

 

It was a flop by Altidore, but he was clearly being held. He embellished, but didn't invent out of whole cloth.

I'll use this to segue into my working theory on why Coulibaly (or his assistant) invented an offense on the U.S. on the ensuing play. My theory is that it was a make-up call after he had second thoughts about the initial call. It's the only rational explanation I can come up with.


Incidentally, I thought the U.S. got away with two offenses that both should have been cautioned. In both instances, a Slovene played the ball away and then got flattened by the American defender; in the first instance, he was cynically impeded and knocked to the turf, in the second he got cleared out by a sliding tackle. I was convinced that both were unsporting tactical fouls, and I felt like Coulibaly could have and probably should have come back to caution them.

 

I just watched the replay again. In the replay you can clearly see the CR pointing outwards for the direction of the foul in a manner that indicates a Direct Free Kick for Slovenia. So, somewhere he saw a foul. Not sure where but that woudl appear to be his indication.

 

If his head was in an offside position, it's still a bad call. It's irrelevant Bradley's head, etc. The replay clearly shows he was not ahead of the ball. Edu scored. It's that simple.

The US should not have put themselves in this position, true, but that doesn't excuse an unqualified official from being appointed to this match. FIFA is responsible for this bad decision.

 

I don't think that criticism is correct. As I remember, the announced stoppage time was three minutes. Play restarted right about at 93:00, and was blown dead at 94:00.