USA or Japan? Normally, obviously, I'd clearly root for the USA women, a team I love. And it's not their fault they got lucky with a ref, which determined the game. I repeat, rightly, Canada should have won in regulation. I say this as a USA fan.
If Japan wins, they set a record, the first team to win World Cup and Gold Medal in same year.
I don't know who to root for. The cosmic cynic in me hopes for this: the USA gets robbed and Japan wins with luck. Just so the USA can see what it feels like.
But this isn't a final decision.
This a.m. an analyst on MSNBC had best report on what happened I've heard. The first call, holding the ball too long, is technically correct but never called because everyone does it. In fact, analyst could only remember one other time, in 2002, it was called at all. 2nd call, hand ball, also tech right but ref was inconsistent since a more blatant hand ball was NOT called against USA only minutes earlier. So definite bias is possible. And in both cases, most refs would NOT call them since players were in protective gestures. So, yes, Canada got screwed by what is called and not called 99% of the time.
To USA's credit, once given overtime by luck, they won with a brilliant last minute play. They are not at fault here, the ref is. But it does tarnish their victory in my eyes. And USA well understands they were lucky.
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