United States players and their coach were left fuming after a last-gasp effort against Slovenia was disallowed, denying them a remarkable comeback victory before the thrilling game finished 2-2 on Friday.
The US battled from two goals down in the first half to level eight minutes from time before Maurice Edu put the ball into the net in the 85th minute only to see his close-range effort disallowed.
"Honestly I think that the set piece, most of what took place was that Slovenia players were holding our players," said United States coach Bob Bradley.
"One player had his arms around Michael (Bradley), Michael was trying to break loose and a foul was called. I don't know if that's accurate. But that's one version," he said.
NO EXPLANATION
"There are moments when you are frustrated because you feel that situations have not been handled 100 percent correctly or fairly. But that's how the game works sometimes. You move on."
Landon Donovan, who kicked off an American second half fightback with a goal three minutes after the restart, said he had repeatedly asked referee Koman Coulibaly from Mali for an explanation but got none.
"I am assuming it was a foul somewhere. It could not have been offside. We asked him where the foul was but he did not say. I don't know what to think of the call.
"To be honest I don't know how much English he speaks. When we asked him numerous times in a non-controversial manner he ignored us," Donovan said.
"We were the best team in the second half, we scored three goals and I would be really interested to find out what the referee called on that last one. As far as I am concerned we should have been leading 3-2," Clint Dempsey told Reuters.
"We are disappointed that we didn't come up with a win when we scored three goals," he said.
