Poetic Justice

A lot has been made about the worst officiating decision in the history of sports. I will not try and re-hash what one Koman Coulibaly enacted upon the United States soccer team and the rest of the nation for that matter. You have got to be freaking kidding me! When that goal was disallowed and the world couldn't figure out why, our nation went into a frenzy. As a basketball referee myself and having made my fair share of not-so-good calls over time, I understand that mistakes happen. So for that, the mistake part, I don't fault Mr. Coulibaly. I do fault him for such a glaring, obvious, ugly, blatent, and disgusting botched call, the worst in the history of sports and at the worst possible time for it to happen. He nullified the greatest comeback in FIFA World Cup history, a needed win by the Americans, and he took away a well-deserved victory by the US national team. Again, people make mistakes, but Coulibaly had more than ample time to think and make the right decision. Even if you blow your whistle and then realize that you shouldn't have called anything as Maurice Edu punts the ball beautifully into the back of the net, just call it an inadvertent whistle and get on with life. Mr. Coulibaly, you may have even saved your career with FIFA if the right decision had been made. Now that is out the window. In a nutshell, he screwed the US soccer team and we are all really upset about it. Good thing the team has moved on and is focusing on Algeria, because the rest of us haven't.
The fact that Americans are so upset in itself is a good thing. It shows that we do care about soccer and are supporting our boys over there in South Africa. Fútbol has potential for more growth on this side of the world and that is what the team needs as they continue to play. Another side note, did you see the goal by Landon Donovan? He nearly decapitated Samir Handanovic, the Slovenian goalkeeper! The guy jumped and hid behind the post, ducking his head, cowering in fear as Donavan burnt a hole through the top of the net. Check it out!
But back to the Algeria thing. As you may have noticed, the title of this post is "Poetic Justice." Here is where that comes into play. The mighty Englishmen couldn't even muster a goal against the Algerians and they ended in a 0 to 0 tie. It's a good thing the goalie didn't screw up this one for Britain (USA-hero and English goalkeeper Robert Green was replaced by David James, also known as Calamity James because he's prone to big mistakes). In other words, the Soccer Gods realized that Coulibaly completely jammed the Americans and made up for it by allowing the English to completely suck against Algeria. Thank you very much. That my friends is a clear cut case of poetic justice (my Spanish literature professor would be so proud of me!) There are a couple of scenarios that would allow the US national team to advance to the knockout stage (round/group of 16), but the only one that matters is this: Beat Algeria. If they do that, they are in. England's tie made that possible. So Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, and the rest, don't lose. Pretty simple after the worst refereeing decision in the history of sports. The call that nullified the goal has been nullified thanks to the incompetence of the English playing as a cohesive unit. Get it done and please don't come home until you do.