Most Americans had never heard of Mali until Koman Coulibaly disallowed a US goal in their World Cup match against Slovenia last week.  Koman Coulibaly gained fame (and quite possibly infamy) after the game- he refused to specify exactly how the US fouled or why exactly the goal was called back.

The call during the US-Slovenia match was not the only controversial call surrounding the World Cup and FIFA. According to Salon, Martin Hansson cried when he found out he missed the Thierry Henry hand ball that sent France to the World Cup over Ireland.

Of course, the distinction between the two officials is that Koman Coulibaly has yet to admit that he may have made a mistake while officiating the match, which he doesn’t have to do by FIFA standards. Soccer officials seem divided over whether or not referees officiating the matches should be required to explain the calls to the players. As I wrote about HERE, I can’t imagine this happening in most American sports, where the games are typically called with the use of hand signals.

In response to the call in the US-Slovenia game, some Americans (and maybe some others in the international community) are re-thinking the idea of using technology such as instant replay in soccer to ensure that the correct decisions are made. FIFA President Blatter is against the use of instant replays in “football” and prefers instead a more “human element” in the game.

The Commissioner of the MLS, Don Garber, however, views the idea of an instant replay in a much more positive manner:

At the risk of offending all those people who are the most influential in the sport, as an American sports fan who likes the fact that bad calls can get reversed, I would be a proponent of instant replay. I understand that's an inflammatory statement, but as a personal observer, I believe the right thing should happen on the field. It seems to me that the result of a sporting event generally should a result of what actually happened on the field as opposed to having a call missed.

As an MLS fan and an American, I have to agree with the MLS commissioner on this one. I think that non-Americans tend to over-romanticize soccer to such a degree that they are too willing to overlook the many flaws inherent in the game. Not only would instant replays give more assistance to the busy officials, it would make the game less susceptible to match-fixing and corrupt referees.