Voila_Capture 2014-02-17_08-56-26_AM Voila_Capture 2014-02-17_08-56-38_AMBrad Meier should be doing the media rounds alongside T.J. Oshie and Jonathan Quick. Meier, who hails from Dayton, Ohio, is the American referee who overturned what would’ve been the third and game-winning goal for the Russians on Saturday – presumably because the net had become dislodged (though there has been no official explanation) – and, as far as I’m concerned, is a goddamned American hero.

Just before Russia "scored" third goal, via SB Nation

Just before Russia “scored” third goal, via SB Nation

The Russians see it that way, too, and that’s the problem for Meier, who may be in serious danger of becoming a bathtime cleaning product.

From what appears to be Russia’s version of Sky News, via Google translate [I bolded the good parts]:

Moscow students hold protest on Monday ” Judge the soap! ” Action is devoted to American referee Bradley Mayer , who credited the Russian hockey goal in the gate at the U.S. Olympics.

The building MSAU gathered several dozen university students . Young people brought several boxes of soap. Pieces of soap activists in the form of a hockey team turned into a powder using ordinary kitchen graters . The guys even had a kind of competition chafing soap.

Recall match Russia – USA, last Saturday in a stadium “Big” in Sochi, ended with the defeat of our players 3-2. Regulation time ended in a draw , in overtime nor Russians nor the Americans failed to score , the fate of the meeting was decided in the shootout.

Fans discontent caused cancellation of the third goals scored in regular time still our protector Fedor Tyutin . The goal was canceled after watching replays arbitrator . Caused the cancellation of washers is that gate was shifted . Formally, the referee was right, but at the same time he had to stop the match still for 8 seconds until it clicks Tyutin – as soon as the gates were shifted . Especially fans angered by the fact that the match refereed American Bradley Meyer.

Head coach of the Russian hockey team Zinetula Bilyaletdinov after the match said that claims to judge him not.

We’ll go ahead and assume something was lost (or gained?!) in translation here and that turning someone into soap is a metaphor for cleansing a tainted result. But the fact remains: the loss on Saturday had such a profound affect on the Russians that they want to turn our sports officials into bars of soap. Rub-a-dub-dub, baby!