Controversial tie good for U.S. soccer?

In the wake of Friday’s controversial 2-2 tie between the United States and Slovenia in the FIFA World Cup, the American sports media has been abuzz with talk of the U.S. team being robbed by a poor decision by the game’s referee.
Before the game kicked off in Johannesburg’s Ellis Stadium the American team was favored to pick up the victory, but goals from Slovenia’s Valter Birsa and Zlatan Ljubijankic in the twelfth and forty-first minutes respectively had put a large dent in those expectations before the stroke of halftime.
Yet in the second half the American team came storming back with a goal from Landon Donovan in the forty-seventh minute and Michael Bradley’s eventual equalizer in the eighty-first.
Then, in the eighty-sixth minute of the game with the score tied at two goals apiece, rookie FIFA World Cup referee Koman Coulibaly made the decision to disallow a goal by halftime substitute Maurice Edu off of a Landon Donovan free kick.
The goal would have likely given the United States team a win which would have put them atop Group C ahead of England, Algeria and the Slovenians and in a commanding position to qualify among the top two teams in their group and thus gain a berth in the World Cup’s knockout round. As it now stands, a victory for the United States against Algeria or a tie and an England loss will still secure a berth in the next round, but the United States’ advancement is much less certain due to the referee’s call.
After the game, the American sports media was quick to voice its collective disapproval of referee Coulibaly‘s decision. ESPN soccer analyst Alexi Lalas called the decision “shameful” on-air, and NewYorkTimes.com ran an article with the headline “Stunning Rally, Shocking Call.”
Yet lost in the uproar over the United State’s perceived role as the victim of a poor call is the fact that it might end up being a good thing in the long run for soccer in America.
“I don’t ever watch soccer really, but I know enough about it to tell you one thing: that call was bullshit,” said Norman resident Bradley Marshall. “I didn’t watch the game live, but I’ve seen the highlights a bunch of times and now I’m pretty fired up to see if we can make it to the next round… I definitely plan on watching the game against Algeria to see if that call ends up costing us.”
Marshall said that even if he doesn’t watch soccer regularly the thing that draws him to sports in general is the drama of competition, and that the World Cup has displayed sufficient drama and pageantry to warrant his attention.
“Who knows, after watching [Wednesday’s game against the Algerians] I might be a fan,” said Marshall.
Stephen Reynolds, a self-described soccer fan and Norman resident, said that he has enjoyed the number of soccer-related conversations he’s been a part of since the game against Slovenia.
“It just seems like that was the thing the average sports fan needed to get them to take notice of the World Cup,” he said. “Nothing motivates people like being pissed off, and when you mess with any American national sports team, Americans get pissed off… Hopefully we’ll be able to point to [referee Coulibaly’s call] in ten years and say that it got people more interested in soccer.”
Like Marshall, Reynolds plans to watch Wednesday’s game against Algeria and afterward hopes to discuss the result with an ever-increasing number people who are just beginning to take notice of soccer in America.
“As long as [the game’s referees] don’t screw us over again, I’m sure it’ll be a fun time,” he said.