Almshouse XPOSED !!!!!

[Sir X]

[FONT=georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif]In Defense of Koman Coulibaly. Sort Of.

By ANDREW DAS

They say there is holding on every play in the N.F.L., but that the referees can’t call it every time because no one would watch. The same goes for free kicks in soccer.

Any fan of the game knows the drill: just before the kick is taken, the referee stalks into the scrum of players jostling for position in front of the goal and quickly slashes his hands across his chest in the universal symbol for any-more-shoving-and-I-will-pull-this-game-over-right-now-young-man-do-you-hear-me? He then marches back into position, slips his whistle back between his lips and mentally prepares to decide just how rough is too rough.

In that vein, I will tepidly come to the defense of Koman Coulibaly, likely the only Malian of whom American sports fans have ever heard. Mr. Coulibaly, as you may have heard, stands accused of cheating the United States national team out of a victory on Friday by disallowing an apparent goal by Maurice Edu late in the second half.

Since our justice system grants even the most incorrigible defendants the right to an attorney, consider me his public defender. Ladies and gentlemen, may I direct your attention to the photograph below:

Luca Bruno/Associated Press

Exhibit A
The man you see in the left of the photo appears to be Slovenia central defender Marko Suler forward Necj Pecnic (anyone available as an expert witness?). The man you can clearly see grabbing him around the waist is his U.S. counterpart Carlos Bocanegra. That man on the right, No. 19, running into the open space Suler Pecnic can’t get to because Bocanegra has him in a bearhug? That’s Maurice Edu.

(As Mr. Coulibaly’s lawyer, I will ask that you please ignore the citizen’s arrest in the foreground. That is an unrelated case.)
Now please look at the next photograph.

Ivan Alvarado/Reuters

Exhibit B
Please notice the two men in the foreground on the right, Bostjan Cesar (5) of Slovenia and Jay DeMerit of the United States. I think we can all agree that the Laws of the Game do not allow for that kind of contact during the run of play.

O.K., seriously now. I think any objective fan can look at the two photos and agree that there was a lot going on during that free kick that isn’t allowed. So maybe some of us didn’t like what Coulibaly saw, or that he chose to pluck out a foul by a United States player instead of one against a United States player. But you can’t say nothing happened.
The defense rests. And that’s just because it’s late and it’s been a long day.

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[Sir X]

My position on this is the US media manipulates what they want you to see, they show you clips at angles that favour them.

I saw it from an angle where it could be an offside , now I see fouls ....unnnu move unnu ..........

The ref did a decent job , it was a physical game and he reffed it so it flowed.

Bastardise the man as 3rd rate African ref...kisseeth...no doubt more angles will come out support the african.

[Me]

The ref did not do a decent job. He had a bad game outside of that call.

Yes, the US media does their typical crucify any obstacle to the win and will be as nasty as possible to try and shame the ref. Peter King from CNNSI had some pretty distatseful comments that sort of reflect the midset of them people.

[Sir X]

Nuff a dem get caught inna di matrix , bwoy mi a tell yuh propoganda is a ****************S ting , they want you to see what they want you to see, not what you need to see or hear.

Dis bredda nuh say a word and man a quote internet article say im say is a foul but im neva say which foul ?

For all i know this man hasnt said a word and the US media is using his silence against him .

Yuh tink dem easy, same way dem hype dem up last WC bout Ghana a easy killings , same ****************#ry dis year.

Yeow X ......VEX !

[Peter R]

The KEY in all of this on that "crucial" call is that whatever he saw he saw immediately the ball was struck and he blew the whistle BEFORE, I repeat for the US waggonists, BEFORE, the goal was scored.

[Bricktop]

Simple...

[Sir X]

Dem nuh waan ear dat , but I will say all this talk in the USA about the incident is healthy it shows America has a strong pulse when it comes to football..opps soccer and its rising .

[Assasin]

Is not only the US media pushing it. It is one of those things that happen such as the "hand of god" "Henry hand Ball" and Zidane sent off. But the nation who feel it most will alway cry out while most fans will alway see it as a ruff deal. The American media is making something big of it because it is them you watching. England pundits and fans still vex bout "hands of god today".

As Ruud said it is good for Soccer in the US. It is the first time Soccer is on the front page of the New York times.

[Bricktop]

It's not about football it's about America...

[Assasin]

shouldn't it be? You think "hands of god" was all about football? or the Irish pride not involved in Henry decision?

Don't act like the Americans different than any other team. Any other country suffer that call would also make a meal about it.

[Bricktop]

There is no controversy. The whistle blew EARLY...the play was DEAD

[Islandman]

Yeah but some countries have a bigger bully pulpit than others because them control the media.

Enough already, bad call mek all the time.

[Karl]

Good defense...but the depth perception thing...has me saying goal.

I'll look a few more times on the "slow mo".

btw - X...I have used the slow mo on your machine. If I remember properly go to where you saved the match...hit play and hit play again and you get super slow mo. I think all the DVRs operate that way.

...btw - wen mi seh 'super slow mo'...mi mean 'super slow mo'!
of course you 'run'/FF/whatever the video until you get to the incident then play, then play.

Aside: What the hell the early whistle has to do with whether or not the call was the correct one?

Early wrong or early right call matters not one bit - The referee's decision during play is final....that's the match!

[Karl]

Just looked at the slow mo twice - It appears those players shown tangled by the 'defense lawyer' started as the player in white preventing the player in blue from going towards the flight path of the ball...once his job was done he let go.

Leave you to decide who was in white and who was in blue.

As fact, who was holding previous to the ball being kicked?

Finally: There is no way the ref was trying to cheat. His call was either right or wrong. Cut him, he'll bleed. ..besides the USA players made tons more bad plays than the ref did.

[Time]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqLRg6eyhiQ

Now lets look at the relative position from a wide angle. start, freeze, start, freeze... Who is holding who? Looks like the Slovenians are holding on to the Americans.?

The ref called a foul against the US so it may be because Clint Dempsey shoved midfielder Andraz Kirm?