The referee got of onto the wrong foot from the get go as Clint Dempsey butted heads in the first minute itself and got off with no booking. Robbie Findley got struck on the face and was carded for an imaginary handball.
It was a poorly officiated match. Leading to the most egregious mistake, calling off that Maurice Edu goal. Coulibaly was supposed to have blown the whistle on Bradley apparently obstructing a Slovenian player before Donovan’s free kick arrived into that jostling group. But footage shows several US players were mugged, including Bradley himself. The infringements were all on the Slovenians.
According to Martin Rogers at Yahoo, Coulibaly now faces an expedited review of his performance by FIFA which could possibly lead to his sitting out the rest of the World Cup or at best continue on as a linesman or as the video official.
“If he is found to have made a serious mistake, especially one that affected the outcome, then he would be highly unlikely to play any further part in the tournament,” said the source, who is close to senior figures on the refereeing panel. “FIFA is determined to keep refereeing standards high and does not want high-profile mistakes.”
They should have thought about that before and introduced ways of eliminating human error and bias. Video technology, anyone? Now, we unfortunately heap scorn at Mali.