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WATCH: USA Screwed By Phantom Call, ESPN Announcer Calls Referee A “Disgrace”

Outrageous. Horrid. Unconscionable. These are some of the words being used to describe the refereeing in today’s USA-Slovenia match. But perhaps even worse than the calls themselves is the fact that US soccer fans were truly robbed of a watershed moment for the sport.

Koman Coulibaly may sound like an unfamiliar name now, but it won’t in a few days time (his Wikipedia page has already been updated to reflect today’s events). After a remarkable comeback from two goal deficit, the US was once again pressing. And on a Landon Donovan free kick, it looked as if the most exciting comeback of the World Cup had been completed.

But it was not to be. Coulibaly disallowed the goal (on a foul? an offsides call?) and the USA was robbed. Plain and simple.

Watch the video below, and note the assertion from Martin Tyler Ian Darke, a “neutral Englishman,” that an egregious error had just occurred.

“Where was the foul?” Where was it, indeed. Alexi Lalas, ever the homer for USA soccer, sounds completely justified in his post-game disgust.