Don't know much about soccer but that ref looked like a joke to me too.
Some of the red flags for were for things that didn't even look like fouls to my uneducated eye. And is he the guy that disallowed the goal by Italy? That looked like a wrong call too.

The reason the goal was disallowed was because the player who shot it in was clearly off-side.

well its good thqat yur uneducated eye can see that those red cards wasnt right.....but that goal that was tooken away becuz the guy was clearly offsides and yur uneducated eye would never see that..so leave it to people who r educated to see if the game if fair or not.

Early in the game, one of the Italian players made a slide tackle from behind. This should have been an automatic red card, but was not. When the U.S. had a player ejected for a slide tackle from the side, it was clear that it was a foul, but did not justify a card. The player was going for the ball, was positioned in front of the Italian player, and (I couldn't tell from the replay) he may have even touched the ball before making contact. Regardless, this shows unequal treatment from the ref.

Later, I saw a handball in the penalty area by the Italians that was not called. This was very clear.

I also saw a foul with a clear goal scoring opportunity that should have resulted in a red card per Law 12, but did not.

I watched the game in a bar at NY Kennedy with tons of Italians. They argued with me about everything and I argued back on all points. It was fun. I've played at a high level, was a HS ref, and coach youth soccer. I could quote the soccer laws and they didn't have a clue. It was infuriating for them to see a U.S. team taking it to their national team. It was unerving for them to encounter U.S. fans as spirited, vocal, and knowledgeable as they were.

The bottom line is none of this will matter if we beat Ghana and advance.

At least we didn't get screwed as badly as the French against Korea.

Face it, we will never get equal treatment in international play. But, watching the kids coming up through select (traveling) and ODP, it's not going to matter. These kids are amazing. The next cup, or maybe the one after, will see us become the dominate power for the duration. As it stands, we just showed that nine Americans can match or even outplay ten Italians. We will dominate.

From Web Link
"Two minutes into the second half, U.S. defender Eddie Pope got his second yellow card of the game for a tackle in which he got the ball first, but still took down an Italian."

If Pope got the ball first (jeers to ABC for blowing the replay), that's no foul. Period.

US tactics were to foul ther way through the game. They simply could not even try to play football against this team. US tried that against Czechs look what happened 0 -3 Italy are a notch up from them !!

The referee was right to send all 3 playefs off a draw will not be good enough as i fancy Ghana to win easily arriverderchi US.

Italy showed the only way they will win a cup is by buying the ref. If they are lucky enough to play Brazil they will be crushed 4-0, with an honest ref.

Would be great to see the Czechs beat Italy 4-0, but the Czech team that played Ghana and will play Italy is a different team than the one with Koller that scored 2 goals on the US in the 1st half.

US tactics were to foul ther way through the game. They simply could not even try to play football against this team. US tried that against Czechs look what happened 0 -3 Italy are a notch up from them !!

The referee was right to send all 3 playefs off a draw will not be good enough as i fancy Ghana to win easily arriverderchi US.
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That's interesting. The game I saw the US was dominating the Americans up until they tried to knock out our striker.

if you think Fifa was going to let the americans bully an european soccer team on european soil, you are a little silly. it's soccer. it's europe. maybe you don't know that Fifa is headquartered in europe...or probably what fifa stands for. homecourt matters in the NBA and all kinds of american sports, and it matters in world cup soccer too.

ID LIKE TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT THE US TEAM ONLY KNEW HOW TO BE TOUGH WITH ITALY I BET THEY WILL NOT BEAT GHANA ON THURSDAY.USA IS GOING HOME.....AND TO THE PERSON WHO THINKS AND HOPES ITALY WILL LOSE 4-0 ON THURSDAY KEEP DREAMING.
FORZA ITALIA CHE VINCERA LA COPA DEL MONDO SI PORTERA!!!!!!!!!!!!

So if you were Uruguayan you'd be able to calm the players down in Italian? The referee can probably speak English, but then you'd complain that he was only talking to the American players, disadvantaging the Italians.

Here's a wacky thought. What about the PLAYERS realising the importance of the game and behaving themselves? If people know now that the referee was suspanded in 2002, they could have found out before the game and acted accordingly.

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Do those players get to play the next game?

no. if you get a red game you have to sit the next match out.