Which one is not even the main issue? The article discusses the reasoning behind both of the main calls in question. The first hand that Rapinoe's kick hit in the box was way too close for the girl to do anything about it but the Nault who was called for the hand ball did have time to readjust. Watch the replay again and you'll see that Nault both brings her hand up and also twists her body which brings her arm into the path of the ball. The way that we were always told to judge it as refs when I reffed was to make the call if the hand/arm comes to the ball but not if the ball comes to the hand/arm, so basically Rapinoe's play that you believe is a "blatant hand ball" at the other end of the field is not due to 1)her arm being hanging, extended naturally at her side (rather than bent up at an unnatural 90 degree angle like Nault's) and 2) the ball coming to her arm (rather her bringing her arm up into the path of the ball as Nault did).
The 6 second call is also not bullshit. Did you even read the article I posted? It's no secret that in any match there is a very, very good chance you can find at least one instance for both teams' goalies where they hold the ball for longer than the 6 seconds that they are, strictly speaking, supposed to be allowed. And it's also no secret that refs are lenient with this rule. However, the difference between the periods of time where Solo is holding the ball and the periods of time where McLeod is holding the ball is 1) not once does Solo have the ball in her hands with her team leading while this does occur for McLeod and Canada many times, meaning that every time McLeod holds the ball a little long while they have the lead she is viewed as deliberately stalling in order to increase their chances of retaining their lead while Solo holding the ball isn't viewed as such, 2) McLeod not only holds the ball longer than the 6 seconds time after time, but she holds the ball for more than 15 seconds, well over twice the permitted time, a handful of times and because of this she does get warned while Solo didn't constantly hold the ball to the extent of McLeod and also didn't receive a warning as McLeod did.
US was outplayed?! Did you watch the game? Sinclair did a hell of a job, but other than that there was nothing for you guys. Our women committed less fouls, had more shots on goal, earned more than twice as many cornerkicks, took twice as many shots, and possessed the ball more than the Canadians.
Sparknotes: I'm right, you're very wrong.
