Keep whining

Congratulations to the U.S. men's national soccer team for beating Algeria 1-0 and advancing to the round of sixteen as Group C winners. Congratulations especially to the U.S. No 10 Landon Donovan for keeping his cool under enormous pressure and converting what almost certainly was the very last scoring chance of the game.

The game with Algeria was an incredible thriller. A scoreless draw would have seen the U.S. eliminated while any kind of win would ensure their qualification, but despite the U.S.'s huge advantage in shots, possession etc. the goal did not come until three minutes before the final whistle, so the fans were kept on their toes for a long time.

Actually, it was much worse than that. The Americans did score a goal much earlier, in the 25th minute, but the goal was disallowed on an offsides call. Video replay showed the call was obviously wrong and the goal should have stood; but in soccer the referee calls are final and they cannot be reversed by any type of review, video or otherwise. So until Donovan scored his goal, the U.S. fans were facing a possibility that their team will be cheated out of the next round rather than eliminated from it. Actually, it was even worse than that. The U.S. was going into the Algeria game having already been cheated out of a win by a bad referee call (they scored a goal against Slovenia which was mistakenly disallowed; had it been allowed, the U.S. would have won their game instead of tying it and the game with Algeria would not have been a must-win for them).

In a post-game interview, Donovan was asked what his feelings were when the U.S. goal against Algeria was called back. He said he felt that there was no point in "moaning about it," as he put it. In one sense, he's right: since referee calls are irreversible, the only thing a team can do in that situation is to try to forget about it as quickly as possible and keep pushing for another goal. But now that the game is over, I think it's time to start moaning. The curious thing, however, is that if the team started complaining, many (if not most) fans would react to it without much sympathy. They'd say something like "Quit whining, you've won the game, what more do you want!" But the outcome shouldn't matter. Unfair treatment doesn't stop being unfair just because the victim manages to prevail in spite of it. If a black person had to go through a racially biased job recruitment process, got the job, and then decided to sue his employer for discrimination, we would sympathize with him--and rightfully so. Most of us wouldn't say "You got the job, didn't you, so stop complaining!"