I blame George W. Bush

The Americans were elminated from the World Cup yesterday, thanks to the malicious ineptitude of an an anti-American referee, who's obviously carrying a grudge against American militiralism. Here's what happened.

Oguchi Onyewu and Ghana forward Razak Pimpong were competing for a bouncing ball within the American penalty area. Both men were in the air trying to land a head on it, and neither was in possesion, when the Ghanian flopped. Any contact was incidental, but Markus "Down with America" Merk, the German referee, ruled that Onyewu had fouled Pimpong from behind and awarded Ghana a penalty kick.

Aside from the fact that Onyewu commited no foul, the incredibly stupid thing about this call, is that the Ghanians weren't on the attack. Their man didn't have the ball. He was in no position to score. In the world of logic and common sense, you award a penalty shot (which is practically the same thing as awarding a goal, because penalty shots are rarely missed) as restitution when a scoring oppportunity is unfairly prevented. Not when two men are in pursuit of the ball, and their bodies accidently collide.

If W hadn't lied to the world, and launched a bogus war, I feel certain referee Merk would have called the play correctly.