Yes, the referee saw a foul, one of many
SIMON HAYDON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 19, 2010
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/sports/professional/professional_soccer/article/WCUP19S_20100618-223009/352134/JOHANNESBURG -- Modern soccer has turned the penalty area into a wrestling ring, and that's what cost the United States victory in its World Cup match against Slovenia yesterday.
Maurice Edu committed no foul as he scored from just more than 6 yards out.
However, just about every other player in the penalty area was holding, grabbing, pulling or pushing as the U.S. free kick descended into the 18-yard zone.
Referee Koman Coulibaly of Mali saw one of several fouls. Unluckily for the U.S., he saw the only one committed by an American, defender Carlos Bocanegra.
Bocanegra had his arms around Slovenia substitute Jejc Pecnik and was preventing him from jumping for the ball.
Coulibaly was ideally placed to see the foul he called. He was 10 yards from Edu as the striker hit the ball home, but the Bocanegra-Pecnik grappling took place just a yard away, in the referee's direct line of sight.
The 39-year-old referee, who has been officiating in tough African competitions for 17 years and called the final of the African Cup of Nations between Ghana and Egypt earlier this year, didn't hesitate to do his job.
But he couldn't see everything in the penalty area. So Coulibaly missed two American players being held and grabbed in different parts of the penalty area by Slovenian players.
Unjust? Certainly, but who's to blame? The referee or the players?
Referees are under orders from FIFA, the sport's governing body, to clamp down on the plague of fouls in the penalty area. But most referees are unwilling to penalize the defending team, preferring to reject goals rather than award them.
This is what Coulibaly did yesterday and it cost the United States a victory that would have lifted the Americans to the threshold of participation in the next round.
Instead, the U.S. must now play a high-stakes game Wednesday against Algeria.
The referee's job is impossible in these situations. FIFA has rejected the use of video technology, preferring to try to maintain the spontaneous nature of soccer and, in the process, inherently rejecting U.S. sports such as football and, to a lesser extent, baseball, that have incorporated replay into their games.
The only concession FIFA has made is to allow the use of two extra assistants to help the referee police the penalty area in some European competitions.
Who knows if they would have helped Coulibaly reach his decision yesterday in Johannesburg?