Koman Coulibaly, the referee from Mali who blew the call that cost the U.S. a victory over Slovenia in a Group C match at the 2010 World Cup, has made MLB umpire Jim Joyce a happy man.
Coulibaly, working his first World Cup game, disallowed a goal from Maurice Edu in the 85th minute that would have put the U.S. ahead 3-2.
A win over Slovenia would have put the U.S. in first place in Group C and made their path to the round of 16 much easier.
But Coulibaly disallowed the goal for reasons he didn’t explain, and the match finished 2-2.
Coulibaly was given a poor rating in an expedited performance review Saturday, according to a Yahoo! Sports report, which cited an unnamed FIFA source.
Joyce was at the center of controversy after blowing a call that cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game on June 2.
Instead of celebrating what would have been the 21st perfect game in MLB history, Galarraga had to settle for a one-hit shutout after Joyce blew the call to rob the righthander.
As is the case with Major League Baseball, FIFA doesn’t have a replay system in use to help officials correct mistakes, and Coulibaly’s phantom call could cost the U.S. an opportunity to advance into the Knockout Stage.
FIFA officials will hold a press conference on Monday to discuss whether Coulibaly will be allowed to officiate another World Cup match.
Even if Coulibaly isn’t allowed to serve as a referee in another match, it will be of little consolation to U.S. soccer fans.
Perhaps FIFA officials, like MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, will acknowledge that Coulibaly’s waving off of an obvious goal for the U.S. was a terrible mistake, but they won’t be able to overturn the call.
All that’s going to be left of this embarrassment is another game official whose name will go down in history for all the wrong reasons, although Coulibaly will certainly be thought of with much more disdain than Jim Joyce.
And like Joyce’s incredible gaffe, all of this could have been avoided had a replay system been in use that would have allowed Coulibaly to correct his mistake.
But MLB and FIFA like to refer to the human element of their respective games, which is another way of saying they’d prefer to let mistakes stand instead of holding game officials accountable.
Until sports fans around the globe demand that game officials be given an opportunity to correct mistakes through the use of effective replay systems, Jim Joyce and Koman Coulibaly will have to live with their errors, and the end results.
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