More Referee Hijinks

Wow. No sooner had I posted on Friday about the disturbing trend among officials in sports today actively trying to influence the outcome of their games instead of just trying to call it as they see it, than that crazy referee in the World Cup game between the U.S. and Slovenia called the phantom foul on America's go-ahead goal with very little time left in the game, that would eventually end in a 2-2 tie. That is yet another example of exactly what I'm talking about. Here is a ref who amazingly not only calls a foul on the U.S. to erase a crucial goal that could easily prove to be the difference between the U.S. team advancing or going home in the World Cup, but to this day has yet to even announce what the foul was, or even who the foul was on.

Huh? WTFZOMG that cannot be true! Oh but it is.

This jackmonkey called the foul, disallowed the goal, and never told anyone -- despite as you can be sure repeated objections and pleadings from the American team -- who the foul was on or what that player did. Never. No one. FIFA even came out in a press conference over the weekend and said they are not taking any action with respect to the call, and they confirmed the decision not to discuss it further, including ever announcing who was called or what they did.

As Mike and Mike were discussing on ESPNRadio this morning, can you imagine if this was done in a real sport? I mean can you even imagine? Kobe Bryant runs down the court, slices through a couple of defenders, launches from near the foul line and dunks it, and then Bleep! A whistle blows, the ref signals for a foul, but won't say who it's on or what the foul was? Then the NBA eventually steps in and confirms the call and that they're not going to divulge any of the details of the call? Or it's the Superbowl, tie game late in the 4th, and the wide receiver of the offense streaks down the field untouched, catches the game-winning touchdown, and then the ref just throws a flag and takes back the touchdown, never saying on whom or why the flag was thrown?

Here is where I would launch on a multi-paragraph rant about how this lack of control over their renegade officials is a big part of why soccer will never, ever make it in the United States. If, that is, I thought this was some accidental stoopid call by the ref that the league just didn't want to overturn. In reality, though, when you see a call that bad, that inexplicable (if anything, our guy Bradley was utterly mugged as the kick came out) and in that big of a spot, it's pretty clear that it's intentional. I mean, think about what the rest of the world thinks of the United States right about now. And they want to see us succeed in soccer even less than in any other endeavor going these days. So when he makes that call and waves off such a crucial goal after such an amazing comeback, and declines to saw who did it or what they did, and then the league holds all that up, you should be able to tell what's going on here. The anti-American referee did not want to see the U.S. win a game he was so positive they were going to lose half an hour earlier, and so he made sure it didn't happen, and then the league totally supported the move.

F soccer, F the world cup, and triple F to the people who don't see what a problem over-active sports officiating has become nowadays.