Reflections on a Screwjob

Allow me to set the stage:

In the first half, Slovenia had surprised the US, who had somehow forgotten that being favored in a game does not mean that you are exempt from playing defense and trying to control the ball. Slovenia scored twice, no thanks to some lousy efforts by the US defense and midfield. Equally bad was the fact that we were unable to make any real headway against their defense, and I was legitimately worried going into the second half.

Fortunately, in the second half, the US remembered what they are really good at: coming back from deficits that are their own fault (let's hope we're this good when it comes to dealing with China). Landon Donovan, he of the incredible goal scoring and equally incredible receding hairline, scored a hockey goal (come in on the goalie, fake, then put it over his left shoulder) to make it 2-1. Less than 20 minutes later, Michael Bradley, whose only claim to fame at this point is that he's the US coach's son (I think this is all anyone knows about him), scored off a nice pass from Jozy Altidore to tie it up at 2.

Now at this point, the US is DOMINATING. Slovenia is not back on its heels; it's wondering if anyone got the license plate of that H3 with the TruckNutz that just reminded them that "superpower" doesn't only refer to our nuclear arsenal. Altidore is pulled down outside the box, and the US receives a free kick.

Slovenia decides to "defend" this free kick. By this, I mean that Altidore becomes an unwitting participant in some sort of medieval hand-fasting ceremony, Bradley is being grabbed in a way that would make most of us curl up into the fetal position and announce that we need an adult, and the rest of the US attack force is being impeded in ways that would be penalized in both American football and hockey. Somehow, out of all this chaos, Maurice Edu swoops in and cleanly deposits the ball into the back of the net. 3-2 US! One of the greatest comebacks of all time. Then the ref blows the whistle, nullifying the goal.

The mystifying part of all this is that there doesn't appear to be a foul on the US, everyone is onside, and the ref makes no indication of why he made the call that he did. Needless to say, this took all of the wind out of the US, and we didn't get close again in what ended in a 2-2 draw.

Now I understand that the ref is part of the game, and that human error plays a part in sports. However, this whole thing could have easily been avoided if they had just chosen a referee with some sort of experience. I mean, Tamsen Burke (who ran the IM department at Chicago; you could have trained a monkey to do her job, do it better, and look better while doing it) had the whole thing figured out: if your team makes the playoffs, you provide a ref; if you don't make it, no ref necessary. This is why the Dominican Republic doesn't send a judge to the figure skating in the Winter Olympics; it's not that they can't do it, but someone decided to leave the job up to countries more familiar with the sport. I'm sure the good people who run the soccer federation of Mali would have been happy not to pay for the referee's travel, and we all would have been better for it.

May all your hits be crits (and not be disallowed),
B