Donovan: U.S. victory ‘stolen’ by referee

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JOHANNESBURG – Landon Donovan insisted the Americans had a historic victory “stolen” from them after their dramatic World Cup comeback to tie Slovenia 2-2 at Ellis Park on Friday.

(Elise Amendola/AP)

Donovan criticized referee Koman Coulibaly, claiming the Malian official had incorrectly disallowed an 86th-minute goal by Maurice Edu that would have given the United States an incredible comeback victory.

“They [the officials] stole a goal from us,” said Donovan, who launched the U.S. revival with a brilliant strike at the start of the second half. “It was a good finish and a good goal.

”It was the guy’s [Coulibaly’s] first World Cup and maybe he got caught up a bit. This is the World Cup and you can’t just take away a goal from a team like that.”

With the Slovenian defense tiring rapidly, Edu made a strong run and connected with Donovan’s free kick from the right, sending the ball past Slovenian goalkeeper Samir Handanovic. However, as the U.S. players began to celebrate wildly, the referee blew his whistle and awarded Slovenia a free kick for what he perceived to be foul play inside the penalty area.

“When I struck the ball and saw it go in the net I didn’t think there was any possibility it would not be allowed,” said Edu, who came on as a half-time substitute. “The guys were very angry because we felt we’d had a fair goal taken away.”

The team converged on Coulibaly and also surrounded him at the end of the game. An irate Jozy Altidore ranted at the referee and was pulled away by teammates Herculez Gomez and Benny Feilhaber before his comments landed him in trouble.

“I guess it just wasn’t to be,” Donovan said. “I am assuming it was a foul somewhere. We asked the ref many times who the foul was and he couldn’t explain it. I don’t know what to think about it, I can’t explain it and I don’t know how there was a call. We asked him numerous times in a non-confrontational manner and he just ignored us or didn’t understand.”

Donovan speculated that Coulibaly didn’t speak English. But captain Carlos Bocanegra confirmed that Coulibaly “spoke French and English just fine.”

Yahoo! Sports approached referee Coulibaly as he left the stadium, but the official refused to make any comment on his decision. Even nearly an hour after the end of the game, there was confusion in the American camp as to what the exact nature of the foul the referee had seen.

“From what I am hearing there were a lot of fouls being committed there by Slovenia players,” U.S. head coach Bob Bradley said. “Michael [Bradley] was being held and he tried to free himself and got called. We think that is what it was, but we are not sure.”

The U.S. looked set to be pushed to the verge of World Cup elimination when it went two goals down in the first half after strikes from Valter Birsa and Zlatan Ljubijankic. But goals from Donovan and Michael Bradley got the Americans back into the game and set up the chance to pull off a miraculous recovery.

Both teams did not back down from each other. Slovenia’s ferocious approach caused its players to be given four yellow cards to just one for the U.S.

Slovenian defender Marko Suler was adamant the referee had made the correct decision to disallow Edu’s goal and accused the Americans of roughhouse tactics.

“They were pushing and holding all the time,” Suler said. “You could see it was a foul and it was the correct decision. They did not deserve to win the game. It would not have been the correct result. We were the better team.”