clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Team USA Soccer Has Nobody To Blame

New, 4 comments

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.

↵
↵

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.

Images by eflon used in background images under a Creative Commons license. Thank you.