I mean, I would hope there be some plaque put up at Old Trafford commemorating the game, even if the team wearing red and white lost.

edit - OF COURSE Tancredi intentionally stomped on her head. Did you see when she was slowly walking to the ref after the penalty as cold-blooded as La Femme Nikita ?

I won't take too much offense, as Carli is South Jersey. They're Eagles fans down there.

Furtho wrote:


No, I'm really quite sure you have never seen that happen. That is the conventional punishment for delaying the taking of a goal-kick, i.e. a dead ball situation. As the ball is dead, you cannot give a free-kick against the person wasting time, so a yellow card is the only option.

An indirect free-kick is the conventional way of dealing with a 'keeper holding on to the ball for an excessive length of time during open play. You could only yellow card her if you had first stopped the game, cards are never given during open play but only when the ball is dead (hence refs waiting for the next stoppage to issue a yellow card for a foul they have played advantage on).
The only ways to restart a game having stopped it are a free-kick either way or a drop-ball. A free-kick to Canada or a drop-ball would have been really unconventional from the referee in that situation.

Bad calls aside, I'm very disappointed to say that the Canadians are not handling this with a lot of class. It's not like it was the 72 basketball finals with extreme irregularities. They were calls the ref is supposed to make to the best of her ability. There's no call for accusing her of being biased.

McLeod, God bless her, was warned even after the GB game. They should have known that the ref was itching to call that on her. And, as JV says, it's a rule that ought to be enforced, even if it usually isn't.

The handball was tough luck. I think it looked more like a handball at full-speed than on replay, so accusing the ref of being biased is not on. Especially given how much she was letting go all day.

The game was pretty evenly matched. The US might have equalized anyway. The correct response is "well, that was tough luck and I didn't see it that way, but what can you do? We still had our chances."


Maybe this is one more thing to add to what needs to be looked at on video replay? It wouldn't take long Or, as I've maintained, we need to completely rethink the concept of penalty kicks for all fouls in the box so minor things don't change the whole game.

I suppose their reaction just proves that defeat hurt. Which is only to be expected.

Tancredi would never have stayed on the pitch with a decent ref, even with the off-the-ball stamp on the head going unnoticed. I suppose she would claim that with a decent ref, she would not have been as livid about how the game was handled.

Biceps:


Popeye Right Hooks:


Faceoffs:


It's a thin line, it's 5 o'clock in the morning
And I'm just getting in, I knock on the door
A voice sweet and low says, who is it?
She opens up the door and lets me in
Never do she once say, sir, where have you been?
No, she says, are you hungry?
Are you hungry, honey? Did you eat yet?
Let me hang up your coat, your coat, your coat
And the woman tells me, pass me your hat too
All the time she smiles, never once raises her voice
It's 5 o'clock in the morning

It's a thin line between love and hate..

The sweetest woman in the world
Can be the meanest woman in the world
If you make her that way, you keep on hurting her
She keeps being quiet
She might be holding something inside
That really really hurt you one day

Here I am laying in the hospital
Bandaged from feet to head
Ya see I'm in the state of shock
Just that much from being dead
I didn't think my woman could do something like this to me
I didn't think she had the nerve, so here I am
I guess action speaks louder than words

It's a thin line between love and hate..

Yeah, well, I won't argue that officiating needs to get better across the board.

I was talking to a 14 year old I know who plays at a fairly high level for his age and he was grumbling about officials and I said "look, man, you've seen some of the terrible calls in World Cups. Now just think how many rungs below the refs in your league are than those refs and how much less they get paid. They aren't out to get you. It's just the nature of the game."

Are there any sports where the standard of officiating is very high and all other sports can look to it for ideas on how to make their own refs better? I think baseball does pretty well. Much better than it used to, certainly.

The guys doing it now don't seem to be as arrogant and while they do miss calls, there seems to be a lot more respect for them in the game than there used to be. Yes, there are arguments and managers get run, but that's mostly just theater.

In the NHL, the arguments are more with the league and the orders it puts on refs, not with the men themselves.

Basketball officiating is a huge mess.

College football refs are lousy in many conferences - partly because they aren't full-time professionals and partly because of how they're directed. Same with the NFL, to a lesser degree.

The game was pretty evenly matched. The US might have equalized anyway. The correct response is "well, that was tough luck and I didn't see it that way, but what can you do? We still had our chances."

Dream on sunshine. That may be the "correct" response objectively but, to paraphrase Mae West "correctness had nothing to do with it." This was the Bruins v Habs in OT, Yankees v Redsox in the seventh game of the AL championship. These women have been playing playing with, and against, each other regularly since they were teenagers, at college, league and international level. There were all kinds feelings/issues swirling around out there yesterday. I wrote during the game that this was Chelsea v Leeds c1970. I wasn't exaggerating.

NBC Sports had some things to say about the free kick.

The two headlines are titled "Ahem, we need to talk about that awful call in U.S-Canada Olympic classic" and "Let’s be crystal clear about Monday’s U.S.-Canada decision: It was wrong. Period."

Amor de Cosmos wrote:


I'm more disappointed with the tone taken by the author of the article than the tone of the players.

Besides, bitterness, while understandable, is not a valid excuse for accusing the ref of being bent. That's a very serious allegation. In most leagues I know of, you can be fined for far less. It would be less offensive to have just called her a cunt, which would have been extremely offensive.

It's also a bit rich for the Canadian coach to accuse the US team of playing too dirty.


Can Canada let it go in time to beat France? After their horrible showing at the World Cup, I'd think that winning bronze should be regarded as a very good outcome for Canada, but after coming so close yesterday, they might not be mentally focused. It seems like this often happens in third place games. The team that's just happy to be there plays better than the superior side. Then again, I don't know if France really counts as the "just happy to be there" side.

I too was at the game last night.

I'm pretty sure that the Canadian keeper was warned about holding the ball too long during the game. I have been watching back on the BBC iplayer and one time she held the ball for 17 seconds. Oddly the one she was called on, may have been more than six seconds but didn't feel excessive to me.

It wasn't timewasting as such, it was more that she couldn't decide what to do.

Really tough on Sinclair who was incredible on the night.

Really looking forward to the final now. Ganbare Nippon!!!

I was disappointed to see so many empty seats at Old Trafford. Not just in the high up areas on the end, but especially in that John Madden used to call "the Alumni Section" in the middle.

jasoñ voorhees wrote:


This seems like a good and easy idea if FIFA wants to do something about it. I played in an adult league when the no-hands back pass rule and timed possession concern came into play. There was a ref who'd hollar at the keepers to hurry up. It didn't take too much to figure he'd book you or give an indirect kick after the verbal warning - and i remember a couple of ridiculous indirect kicks from 10 yards away.

Then again, I don't know if France really counts as the "just happy to be there" side.

France creamed Canada in the World Cup last year. They will likely need no more motivation than that. Since then the team has also vastly improved under John Herdman. He seems to be a coach who uses every psychological ploy he can to improve his team's chances. His accusation, prior to yesterday's match, that the US team illegally blocked opposition players at corners, definitely created an edge in Canada's play. Canada's soccer teams (women and men) needed to quit being so nice. They have to play more like our hockey teams do. Even if FIFA hands out suspensions for comments after yesterday's game, as they seem to be considering, it'll be worth it if it helps them to turn in more performances like yesterday's.

All tickets sold for the final I hear.

Biggest attendance for a women's game in the UK.

I've got two of them. Looking forward to it.

I believe the Bronze game will be 7:30am eastern if my calculations are correct.

Go Canada. (Or in linus's case, good luck to both.)

Have a blast Janik.

I'm going to the Bronze medal match at the RICOH arena later today, who should I be looking out for on either team?

My two favorites on France are #14 Necib in the midfield and centre-forward #11 Delie. France can attack from any angle, and has had around 8 different scorers for their 11 goals. Expect them to create a ton of good chances, and miss almost all of them.

France's keeper, Bouhadi, had one of the best games of the tournament against Sweden. She's outstanding on crosses and can pull off some great saves. She can also goof up.

Canada obviously has #12 Sinclair at centre-forward, but #11 Scott is a shortstuff who does all the grindwork in the midfield. My favorite is now #14 Melissa Tancredi, who actually was the leading scorer until Sinclair's hat-trick against the USAs, and may be a psychopath.


#6 Kyle got open a bunch on the left, and set up a bunch.

Have fun as well.

I'd add #7 full back Rhian Wilkinson. Slow, but the most intelligent distributor of the ball on the team. She's being allowed to roam forward more than she was, which leaves her vulnerable to speedy wingers. But, provided she chooses her opportunities carefully, her crosses into the box are exceptional.

Sadly I doubt I'll be watching at 4:30am.

Actually 5 am. So WAKE UP

0-0, 10 min in.

Canada's legs look stuck in the mud. That lactic acid still is weighing down those legs.