By Nina Mandell, Della Hasselle, Tara Kyle and Josh Williams
DNAinfo Staff
MANHATTAN — Team USA was robbed of victory on Friday after a controversial foul call erased the winning goal in a World Cup game against Slovenia that ended in a 2-2 tie.
"We! Got! Robbed! We! Got! Robbed!" chanted fans outside Nevada Smith's in the East Village.
"I thought it was bulls---," said Tom Corsillo, 27, outside Nevada Smith's. "If you had told me going into the second half that we were going to tie, I would have been happy. But then we had an awesome second half and we had a third goal taken away from us. So it was awful."
"This is a load of crap!" said Victor Jeklits, 41, of the Bronx, who caught the game at the Kingsdale Tavern on the Upper East Side. "Ridiculous! Come on!
"It's very frustrating, especially when we were down 2-0 in the first half," he said.
Earlier at Nevada Smith's, fans had been chanting "One! More! Goal!" after the Americans pulled even in the 82nd minute. But it was not to be, as referee Koman Coulibaly of Mali waived off an 85th minute goal by Maurice Edu with a suspect call.
"One of the most influential calls ever," said Mike Antonelli, 25, who took the day off from work in Midtown to catch the game. "That call might take us out of the second round."
Team USA's chances to advance to the elimination round of the World Cup were hanging on by a thread after the draw.
Slovenia leads Group C with four points and the Americans have two. England, which has one point, plays Algeria at 2:30 p.m. on Friday. Algeria is last in the group with zero points. The two teams with the most points after three games move on to the knockout stage.
Carlos Oliver, 27, of the Lower East Side, said he was praying England loses to Algeria in the next game, to keep American hopes alive.
"A tie is better than nothing," he sighed.
"A tie is like a win when you're down 2-0," said Kenny Akan, 37, of the Bronx, who watched the game at Kinsdale Tavern. "We got robbed, though. Robbed."
It was a roller-coaster morning for American fans. Team USA went down early 2-0 to Slovenia before the half.
"I feel like crying," said Artie Tanseco, 28, of New Jersey, as he shook his head and walked out of Nevada Smith's in the East Village. "I want to weep."
Valter Birsa fired a shot past American goaltender Tim Howard in the 13th minute. Zlatan Ljubijankic scored in the 42nd minute.
The second goal sent three Slovenian fans at the Third Avenue bar into ecstatic jumping and shrieking. A U.S. fan told them to go back to their hostel.
The comeback began in the second half.
Midfielder Landon Donovan scored for the U.S. at the 48th minute to cut the lead to 2-1.
The early Slovenian goal upset Michael O'Connor, 26, an insurance programmer from Westchester.
"It literally sucks a lot," he said. "I hate losing to Europeans more than anything. It's the worst thing I could ever imagine.
At Dempsey's in the East Village, fans were frustrated, too.
"We are playing like a D-3 college team," said Brittany Seabloom, 24, of the Upper East Side. "The defense needs to organize better."
The only people happy about the outcome, it seemed, were Slovenian fans.
"The best thing about this game was that Slovania scored goals and they shocked the U.S.," said Damir Knezevic, 44, of Manhattan, who caught the game at Kinsdale Tavern. " It was a blank page. It could've gone either way."
But at Dempsey's, fans wanted it to go the USA way.
"We won this match, we had it won," said Stephen Kendrick. "That's the way the ball rolls."
