What was the call?

"It should have been a goal," says ESPN Analysts. "I'm a disgrace, says that wannabe analyst Alexi Lalas.
"The referee blew the call!" says another critic.
Sports Illustrated Peter King calls me "incompetent!"
Other media reports say I blew the game for the U.S.

Millions of people who were staring at TVs and the web around the world are still asking and want to know, What was the call?" I made when Maurice Edu kicked the ball into the net after receiving a pass from Landon Donovan on a free kick in the 86th minute of the game.

I will answer that, but first I want to say the game was not decided by me. I am a soccer referee responsible for enforcing the laws of the game. I do not decide which team wins or loses. That's not what I do, and we referees do not declare who's victorious.

I am experienced and professional. But I am also human and imperfect. When the U.S. players were asking me at the end of the game, "What did you call!" My eyes were focused on the ground. I was walking backward and keeping them at a distance. I wanted to tell them what the call was, but per our guidelines and instructions with FIFA, we cannot speak about the game after it is over. We cannot talk to reporters,and it's strongly recommended that we do not speak to players and move on. I was not being rude or disrespectful. I was just abiding by the rules that were bestowed upon me.

When Landon Donovan kicked the ball on a free kick and it was crossing into a crowd of men with blue and white jerseys. I could have sworn, I saw men in the blue jerseys and white jerseys grabbing, hugging and pulling on each other, I decided to hold the whistle, which means not to blow it, and play the advantage which means recognize you saw something, but let the play-play out.

So when Edu kicked the ball into the net, I blew the whistle signaling a foul and a direct kick. It wasn't offsides or even close to that. The call was holding, I looked straight into the eyes of Michael Bradley and saw him being held, but for that split second, I thought Bradley was holding the Slovenia defender. "I screwed up!" The Slovenia player was holding Bradley. I could have taken a moment and acknowledged it was an inadvertent whistle blown and then call a drop ball. This is when I would identify one player from each team to come to a spot on the field where play was stopped and drop the ball and play commences. But that may have been a real cop out and made matters worse, because I'm now acknowledging I made a huge mistake and that definitely would not have gone over well with FIFA. So I just called a free kick for Slovenia to bring the ball an get us to start the play quickly.

I feel horrible, but again the game was not lost because of me. If the U.S. would have played in the first half as well as they played in the second half, the U.S. wouldn't have had to allow a so-called controversial call affect the outcome of the game. "I didn't lose this game for the U.S."

As for me, what happens next? I've got an unexpected early trip back home. Our supervisor says I apparently cracked under pressure, lost control of the game and appeared to have been distracted and not focused. I called a hand ball against U.S. striker Findley when the ball struck his face and neck, but he didn't deliberately use his hand to come in contact with the ball. I gave it to him for unsporting behavior because I thought he deliberately used his hand. My supervisor of assessors was wondering why I gave Findley a yellow card. What also threw me off about that call is that Findley's arm was in an unnatural position, so that's why I called handling.

Being sent home from the World Cup is an awful feeling. I've been sent home and told my services are no longer needed. I now have increased security as a precaution with me provided by FIFA and I let my peers down. Oh well, at least I can say my game will live in history for infamy.

"ZZZZZZZZ" "ZZZZZZZZZZ" Ding Dong! "Honey," my wife yells "can you get the doorbell please?" "Someone's at the door!"

My thoughts after refereeing the U.S. vs. England Game

Now that I finished refereeing the South America vs. Mexico game with my fantastic crew and the game ended in a 1-1 tie, I had little time to rest because FIFA said you guys were so great, we need you to ref the highly anticipated U.S. vs. England match.

"Wow!" I said, then I followed, who do you want as the center referee? They said me! I was so excited. I told myself inside, this can't be possible. This is just an incredible dream! Don't pinch me, I don't want to wake up. Every referee gets the adrenalin rush when they get a great assignment but I felt it odd, that they would allow me to ref the game given I'm a U.S. Citizen. Normally FIFA (the International Football Federation that organizes the tournament)does not allow a referee to officiate a World Cup game if he's a citizen of one of the countries playing. This is done to avoid any potential conflict of interest and avoid protest.

FIFA allowed me to ref because they were also impressed in watching me the way I was sprinting up and down the field when Trinidad & Tobago played the U.S. in a qualifying match in Nashville, TN. That's the picture you see above. And do you see that little guy in the lower right hand corner of the still photo? Guess Who's that?

Though the US and England game ended 1-1, I should have anticipated more how physical the game was going to be. I felt I had a great pre-game discussion with my team. Wayne was my AR-1 (Assistant Referee 1), Bryan was my AR-2, Anthony was going to be the 4th official. Wayne replaced Jeff who twisted his ankle in the parking lot and it became very swollen. Bad luck for him. I decided let's where our red referee colored Jerseys.

Like I said, I wish the game wasn't as physical as it was, but it seemed none of the players complained after the game, so it was in my opinion a successful match of officiating. I did feel really bad when England's forward Emile Heskey slid and collided with USA's goalkeeper Tim Howard. I mean Heskey's foot cleats up slid on the grown striking Howard full force into his sternum. I immediately blew the whistle realizing how hurt he was, but also realized it was a 50-50 ball, meaning both players made a play for the ball and neither were in possession to get there before the other. Some say, why didn't I call dangerous play because Heskey's cleats were up and award the US an indirect free kick? I decided in a split second that was not the case and I wouldn't have changed my mind if the same thing happened again.

The cards I issued for the tactical fouls such as when the US's Findley placed his foot right on the ankle of his English opponent clearly causing apparent severe pain deserved a yellow card(caution). Findley received it for unsporting behavior. Sort of like a penalty in American Football when an NFL ref calls unsportsmanlike conduct. I just wished I had given more cards earlier on during the game because it was so intense later on the game. The TV cameras just couldn't pick up the energy and intensity on the field the way my referee team was feeling. It was obvious, neither team wanted to lose or back down. I had to call a couple charging, trip pings and of course the ever so popular offsides.

I still remember when Clint Dempsey took that shot at England's goalkeeper Robert Green, I said to myself okay, routine shot on goal, keeper will collect it and then get it out, but when the ball rolled off his hands and behind him, I quickly glanced at Wayne. He was running into position, ran to the end line and then sprinted 10 yards up the touch line, which was his way to communicate with me that the goal was good as we discussed during pre-game warm up.

Now that the game was 1-1, I told the entire crew,let's tighten it up. The game is about to get real intense. Even Anthony was busier than normal because one of the English defenders caught a bloody nose and I told him to leave the field. He kept giving me lip like, "What? What?" I said you have blood on your lip take care of it and then see my AR before I allow you back in. Because I wanted the game to quickly continue, I told Anthony, who was my fouth official to come around and take this player away, so I can the game rolling again.

I did get a big kick when I blew the whistle before one corner kick and told both teams to stop shoving each in the penalty area before the corner kick. They did not want to risk either a penalty kick or yellow card caution on an attacker.

Also what was challenging to see was the shirt pulling like what Michael Bradley did during a corner kick that television replays kept showing. Sometimes, I hate our technology of replays being shown over and over again, but oh well, that's life!

Anyhow I will do a better job of watching for when the defenders pull on the attackers shorts, or when the attackers are fouled by the midfielders from the opposing team.

All in all, we did a great job! "Daddy, Daddy, are you dreaming again! Please wake up, wake up and tell me a bed time story! "It's time to go to bed!"