Nobody loves blaming referees when things go wrong more than me. I grew up in Southern California but hated the Los Angeles Lakers, and I believe every title they've won in my lifetime - and Kobe Bryant's entire career - can be attributed to nothing more than favorable officiating.
↵So watching the USA-Slovenia game on Friday, like every other American fan out there, I promptly lost my mind when referee Koman Coulibaly inexplicably waved off Maurice Edu's goal that would have given the Yanks a 3-2 victory. It was an inexplicably bad call, summed up most succinctly by American coach Bob Bradley.
↵↵↵What I've heard is that there were three fouls in the box, and all of which were against Slovenia players.
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However, upon further reflection, and more importantly, after Algeria managed to earn a tie against England later in the day, I realized that there should be no complaints coming from the American camp.
↵As commentator Alexi Lalas repeatedly pointed out, the referee didn't force team USA to give up two goals in the first half. The American defense needs to get a lot better very soon, and that's nobody's fault but their own.
↵Furthermore, with a win against Algeria, the United States punches its ticket to the round of 16. (If England doesn't fare well against Slovenia, the Americans could even advance with a tie.) If we can't pull off a single win in the group stage - bad call or no bad call - we don't deserve to advance.
↵So celebrate the comeback and be excited for the Algeria game, just leave Coulibaly out of this one.
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