22 SVNUSA Coulibaly

 

United States trailed two-nil at halftime, pulled Slovenia back level in a spirited second half performance before a late winner by Maurice Edu was infamously chalked off by the referee Koman Coulibaly. Malian official had to face a pretty pulsating match, he did not especially convince with his performance. 

If Edu's disallowed goal foiled the States right at the end, they should have played all but ten seconds of the match without the full complement of players - Clint Dempsey's elbow right at the very start should have been the end of his game. 

Coulibaly's participation at the tournament was the result of good fortune. Five referees remained at the end of 2008 on FIFA's pre-selection list for Africa, on the premise four would be selected. Coffi Codjia eliminated his trio after an excruciatingly poor performance at AFCON 2010. At this point, Maillet, Benouza and local Damon were to be the referees and Coulibaly's trio a support team. 

When Mohamed Benouza's assistant referee(s, I could never find out whether it was one or both) failed the pre-tournament fitness test, the Algerian-Egyptian trio were removed, and Coulibaly with his Moroccan and Angolan ARs stepped up to handle a match. 

FIFA had another Hester problem - they had to find a match for a trio rather conceived to satisfy lobbies of West (Coulibaly), North (Achik) and Central Africa (Cândido) whom they didn't really plan on appointing. In the end they plumped for Slovenia - United States.

It didn't really pay off. Let's start with the crucial decisions, and the less memorable of the two big mistakes that Coulibaly made. 

Key Match Incidents

1' - Violent Conduct by Clint Dempsey?

Yes, Dempsey should have walked. US player led with his elbow in the challenge, using his arm as a weapon targeted at Zlatan Ljubijankić's face. 

Slovenia players immediately detected the rather violent nature of this strike, even Coulibaly seemed to the way he reacted to the duel, but in the end Dempsey was only warned in rather weak fashion.

I don't think it was courage the Malian referee lacked here, so much as alertness.

CRUCIAL MISTAKE

69' - DOGSO by Marko Šuler?

An interesting classroom situation! 

First, was it a foul? 

Yes, Šuler gets too close to Jozy Altidore on purpose as the US striker has won the position in front of him, to bring him down. Coulibaly correctly awards a freekick, as the contact was clearly outside the penalty area.

And, DOGSO?

A trickier question. It's tight, but I think Coulibaly (and AR Rédouane Achik) get it right. Especially given that Altidore has not yet controlled the ball, and would have to take a touch taking him at least somewhat wide after having reached the ball, there is too much doubt to issue a red card in my eyes. 

72' - Serious Foul Play by Andraž Kirm?

On a didactic level, this should definitely be evaluated as a red card offence. Kirm's studs hit on Steve Cherundolo was simply very dangerous, just look at the contact point. 

However, given the more 'glancing' nature of the contact on Cherundolo's non-standing leg, perhaps FIFA could accept a the yellow card given, even if it's clear that Coulibaly (and team) did not properly perceive the challenge.

85' - Goal?

The famous incident! First a technical analysis, and then something somewhat more conspiratorial. 

Presumably, it either Steve Cherundolo or Michael Bradley who Coulibaly penalises here. Malian referee surely had the evaluation of the Argentina - Nigeria goal on his mind, and the situation is very similar in that the attacker is in a somewhat 'suspicious' amount of space. 

The problem being that I can only really see misplaced defending from both Nejc Pečnik who initiates his holding duel and Aleksandar Radosavljević who seems to only be interested in blocking Bradley off. 

I am at something of a loss to explain this call, besides guessing that Coulibaly assumed there had to be a foul given how free scoring Maurice Edu was in the penalty area.  

(I only hope that Coulibaly didn't invent an offence on the premise that the freekick given was wrong (clearly correct), Achik not flagging for it as well as how early he puts his whistle to his mouth perhaps could point in that direction)

CRUCIAL MISTAKE

Balance

Koman Coulibaly's style, lacking somewhat in soft skills, using his presence after fouls quite often with solid fitness and card choices was actually okay, but his decisions were the problem. As said, his disciplinary control was okay (yellow card to Robbie Findley was just following guidelines), but he struggled significantly in foul detection (25', 29', 30', 35', 53', 58', 63', 88').

His card presentation was very irritating, he seemed to have particular trouble reaching into his pocket and picking the card out. One should expect better at the World Cup! He had quite large difficulties in managing the players, but in a quite difficult dynamic match, the Malian referee could also have done worse in my opinion.

This performance was chiefly memorable for those mistakes at 1' and especially the infamous disallowed goal. While Coulibaly had some fortunate to handle a match in 2010, he was perhaps less fortunate as to the nature of the game. His tournament as referee was over after his first match. 

Rédouane Achik played a very good onside for the second Slovenia goal, besides that he and Inácio Cândido weren't particularly challenged. 

Koman Coulibaly - 7,2 Rédouane Achik - 8,5 Inácio Cândido - 8,4 Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh Jeffrey Goh MLI, MAR, ANG – MAS, SIN	Slovenia 2-2 United States Group Stage 18 June
Cesar (35') - SPA (Tackle) Šuler (69') - SPA (Charging) Kirm (72') - Tackle Jokić (75') - Tackle	Findley (39') - Lack of Respect (Handling)