Former Terp Maurice Edu Scores Game-Winner for USA, Ref Disagrees

I hate complaining about refs. But by God, this is a situation where it was warranted. In today's crucial USA-Slovenia match, the US was trailing by 2 goals at halftime. A furious second-half rally tied the score, and in the 85th minute Maurice Edu knocked in a Landon Donovan free kick for what seemed to be one of the most dramatic, important goals in US soccer history.

Sadly, the goal was disallowed for...well, we don't quite know what it was disallowed for. Certainly no one was offsides or close to it, and Slovenia was far more physical in the box than the US. In fact, if there was a foul on the play at all, then it should've been on Slovenia. It's a match the U.S. should've won, and this is why I hate the "human element" in sporting events.

So why are we talking about it? Simple: Edu, the would-be goal scorer, played soccer at Maryland and was on the national championship-winning 2005 team. It would've been an awesome goal regardless of collegiate affiliation, but having it being scored by a Terp would've made it even better. It certainly would've been a small source of pride for me.

Video is below. Judge for yourself:

Edu may see playing time against Algeria, and probably deserves to. The USA ran much better with him on the field than they did with either Ricardo Clark or Jose Torres.

It's worth noting that Clarence Goodson is also on the team as a center back and probable first defender off the bench, but probably won't see playing time unless Oguchi Onyewu can't go a full 90 minutes against Algeria.