Okay, I Saw It

Last night on CBC, I finally saw the play near the end of the US-Slovenia game in which the goal was disallowed.

I am not a big fan of complaining about officiating. (I do it, of course; I am just not a big fan of it.)

But folks, that was atrocious. There was assault and battery going on in there. There was probable cause for no less than four arrests, if only the security had been effective.* It was a like a scrum. At the very least it looked the world had finally adopted American football.

This was far worse than Galaragga’s almost perfect game debacle of a few weeks ago because that did not affect the outcome of the game.

This did affect the outcome. What should have been a 3-2 victory was turned into a 2-2 draw.

So the US played a horrible first half, and the second half was not much better. But they did what they had to do, which is the pretty uncommon feat of scoring three goals in one half in a World Cup game.

There still has been no confirmation of what the call was. No one knows, probably not even the official who called it. One of the commentators used the word “bizarre” for it. It was appropriate.

If there was ever a place for a call to be overturned, this is it.

Of course, this will all be moot if the US beats Algeria in the final game of the first stage. And let’s be honest—tying Slovenia and not beating Algeria means you do not deserve to move on.

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*“There were also more questions about security at the World Cup after a disgruntled fan managed to barge his way into the England dressing room.

According to reports, the fan confronted David Beckham before being led away, prompting the England team to make an official complaint to FIFA about the security around the squad.”