I feel sorry for Koman Coulibaly. The World Cup referee might have a spot of trouble getting a U.S. visa to visit Disney World after screwing the Americans out of a victory against Slovenia in South Africa today, putting their chances of advancing out of the first round in jeopardy. The response on the internet has been swift and severe. Within seconds of his gobsmackingly shitty call to disallow a completely valid goal by the Yanks, the Malian official's Wikipedia page was vandalized, his photo was distributed on wanted posters, and "This Guy Sucks" was upvoted to the number one spot on Reddit. I would have loved to see the Americans win, but maybe we should thank Coulibaly. Today America became a real soccer nation, joining the ranks of soccer-mad states like Germany and England as worthy teams that have been undone by either incompetent or vindictive World Cup referees. We've finally arrived.

When the next batch of listicles counting down the worst calls in World Cup history are written, Friday's match is bound to make an appearance. It's not quite as egregious as the "phantom goal" given to England against West Germany in 1966, which USSR linesman Tofik Bakhramov admitted on his deathbed was deliberate payback for Nazi atrocities at Stalingrad. And nothing can compare to the injustice of Diego Maradona's 1986 "Hand of God" goal against England, in which the Argentinian soccer legend punched the ball into the net and played it off as a header, fooling officials who weren't in position to see it—and no one else. But this is the Americans' first taste of the unbelievable unfairness that can be part of a game that, inexplicably, still doesn't allow instant replay. You win some, you lose some, and some are taken from you.

Children are taught from an early age that referee errors are part of the game, and the best way to avoid them is to dominate the field of play so completely that there can be no ambiguity in your victory. Hopefully the Americans can take that to heart and trounce Algeria on June 23 by a healthy margin. If Coulibaly is on the pitch, though, the hand of God himself won't help them.