PRETORIA, South Africa — The soccer field behind Odendaal High School might have been the only place in this country (maybe in the world!) Monday morning where people were empathetic toward beleaguered World Cup referees Koman Coulibaly and Stephane Lannoy, whose controversial calls in recent days have sparked outrage from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro to South Florida.

Most of the 87 tournament referees — Coulibaly and Lannoy were conveniently absent — gathered at the schoolyard for daily training and rare media availability, organized by FIFA to help humanize the men everyone loves to hate.

The refs ran laps and sprints, did push-ups and crunches on yoga mats, and with the help of local club Tuks, worked on offside calls, followed by instant video replay to evaluate their work. They practiced how to manage jostling inside the penalty box. A vuvuzela soundtrack was piped in to simulate crowd noise.

When they were done, the referees took questions from reporters. They wouldn't discuss specifics of the calls in question, but they offered an insiders' view of their profession, their take on instant replay and the agony they face after botched calls.

Martin Hansson certainly can relate to what Coulibaly is going through after disallowing Maurice Edu's apparent game-winning goal for the United States against Slovenia, a decision that could wind up costing the United States a spot in the second round.

Hansson, 39, is the Swedish referee who failed to spot Frenchman Thierry Henry's hand ball in the buildup to France's decisive goal against Ireland in World Cup qualifying last winter. The non-call advanced France to the World Cup and kept Ireland out.

"My view was blocked and it wasn't until 30 minutes after the final whistle that I recognized what had happened — a horrible feeling," Hansson said. "After the game, I cried in the dressing room. One of the members of the Irish delegation came in and said, 'Gentlemen, rise up, you could not help this, it was not your mistake.' It was admirable. That helped a little bit. But it took me a long time to get over."

He said he understands "100 percent" why the players were so upset with him.

"Most of the players saw there was really a hand ball, and it must be really frustrating for the players when almost all of them saw it and not the referee," he said. "As a referee the most important thing is to win the respect from the players, so they will forgive your mistakes."

Hansson received death threats and was hounded for weeks by the media. He considered resigning and returning to firefighting full time.

"I was thinking if it's worth it because the media was in my small village, at my home, taking photos of my parents' house, knocking on neighbors' house middle of the night, then I thought, 'is it really worth it?' " he said. "But for refereeing, it's worth it. I travel around, meet a lot of extremely nice people. My passion is to protect football. I love football. I want to get the play attractive for spectators, make sure real football artists are feeling protected; that's my view, to protect the game."

As for the harsh criticism, he accepts it as a job hazard.

"I know the risks of being a ref. Nobody cares about us when we have success, only interested when we make mistakes. That's the life, unfortunately."

Coulibaly worked as a fourth official at the Italy-New Zealand match Sunday, but was left off the list for the upcoming round of games. Lannoy is being criticized for sending off Brazil's Kaka when an Ivory Coast player took a dive.

Howard Webb, a 38-year-old veteran English Premier League referee, said fans and players should be more forgiving. He has made his share of controversial calls.

"We go out there to call the decision correct all of the time, but the game is played at lightning speed," he said. "You'll see misplaced passes all the time here. You'll see some goalkeeping mistakes; you'll see good chances missed that you'd expect a player to score. We accept that's part and parcel of football I guess. There has to be an acceptance that refereeing is part and parcel of football, as well.

"We go into every game hoping that nobody talks about us at the end of the game. If nobody mentions the referee in a match report or in the newspaper or TV, that really is great news."