I hate to come off as the Angry American, upset after watching his country lose a heart breaker to Ghana, but seriously, FIFA should be ashamed of itself for the way the US team was treated during this World Cup.
We had a game-winning goal disallowed for no reason. The referee wasn’t even able to give a reason why after the game. Go ahead and watch the replay of that call. 2 Americans are being bear hugged and dragged to the ground in the box, and the referee calls a penalty on us. What a terrible call!
Fast forward to the game with Algeria. Another goal is disallowed for an offsides call that was clearly not offsides. Thankfully Donovan was able to score in stoppage time.
And then today’s game with Ghana. Granted, the US put itself in a giant hole once again early in the match, but they equalized again with an amazing penalty kick from Donovan. Then Ghana scores an early goal in Extra Time.
And then the insanity began. The Ghanaians started flopping all over the place. A guy went down in midfield who wasn’t even touched, and they sent a stretcher out! A guy fell after making a bicycle kick, and you would have thought we cleated him in the chest. Then they sub the guy furthest away on the field just to run off time. They took their good sweet time for throw ins, corner kicks, goal kicks, etc. By my count there should have been about 5 minutes plus added on, not 3.
It seems to me (and I’m biased for sure) that FIFA did not want the US to even make it out of the group stage. Maybe trying to make a political statement or something, I don’t know.
It was amazing to watch our team fight against 11 and sometimes 12 players and do as well as they did. They never quit and actually played better soccer as the matches went on.
Unfortunately, they put themselves in holes one too many times, and now we must wait another 4 years, but shame on you, FIFA, shame on you.