Friday Flashback: When the US were robbed (worse than today) in 2002

Friday Flashback: When the US were robbed (worse than today) in 2002

Friday Flashback: When the US were robbed (worse than today) in 2002

Posted by Eric Beard

The United States certainly are not happy with Koman Coulibaly, the ref of the Slovenia-US game, because he really did cost the US team a victory. However, this is nothing new for the US squad. Eric Wynalda, former USA forward, said that “FIFA needs to investigate” Coulibaly’s decisions because he thought there were hints of match-fixing involved. But hey, at least the US team is still in this tournament. Let’s turn the clock back eight years when the USA made it to the quarterfinals against Germany, but were really robbed a likely spot in the semifinals.

 Despite dominating the run of play, Germany had gone 1-nil up. But what happened next? Well, Greg Berhalter volleyed a shot on goal from an inswinging corner. It bounced over a diving Oliver Kahn, but Torsen Frings was there. Rather his hand was. The ball clearly hit Frings’ hand, which would have been a penalty and a red card against Germany.  So let’s put this whole US-Slovenia disgrace aside for a moment and look at something that was truly injustice. You know, for a shot of Schadenfreude.

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