They say there is holding on every play in the N.F.L., but that the referees can’t call it every time because no one would watch. The same goes for free kicks in soccer.

Any fan of the game knows the drill: just before the kick is taken, the referee stalks into the scrum of players jostling for position in front of the goal and quickly slashes his hands across his chest in the universal symbol for any-more-shoving-and-I-will-pull-this-game-over-right-now-young-man-do-you-hear-me? He then marches back into position, slips his whistle back between his lips and mentally prepares to decide just how rough is too rough.

In that vein, I will tepidly come to the defense of Koman Coulibaly, likely the only Malian of whom American sports fans have ever heard. Mr. Coulibaly, as you may have heard, stands accused of cheating the United States national team out of a victory on Friday by disallowing an apparent goal by Maurice Edu late in the second half.

Since our justice system grants even the most incorrigible defendants the right to an attorney, consider me his public defender. Ladies and gentlemen, may I direct your attention to the photograph below:



Luca Bruno/Associated Press

The man you see in the left of the photo appears to be Slovenia central defender Marko Suler forward Necj Pecnic (anyone available as an expert witness?). The man you can clearly see grabbing him around the waist is his U.S. counterpart Carlos Bocanegra. That man on the right, No. 19, running into the open space Suler Pecnic can’t get to because Bocanegra has him in a bearhug? That’s Maurice Edu.

(As Mr. Coulibaly’s lawyer, I will ask that you please ignore the citizen’s arrest in the foreground. That is an unrelated case.)

Now please look at the next photograph.

Ivan Alvarado/Reuters

Please notice the two men in the foreground on the right, Bostjan Cesar (5) of Slovenia and Jay DeMerit of the United States. I think we can all agree that the Laws of the Game do not allow for that kind of contact during the run of play.

O.K., seriously now. I think any objective fan can look at the two photos and agree that there was a lot going on during that free kick that isn’t allowed. So maybe some of us didn’t like what Coulibaly saw, or that he chose to pluck out a foul by a United States player instead of one against a United States player. But you can’t say nothing happened.

The defense rests. And that’s just because it’s late and it’s been a long day.

By popular demand, here’s some video of the play. As I noted in the original post, there are at least a half-dozen players who can legitimately claim they were fouled. Thanks to all who took this post in the spirit it was intended. Now all we need is a nickname for this incident, so that it can rightly claim its place in the World Cup history books alongside the Miracle of Belo Horizonte, the Battle of Berne and the Hand of God. AD