G Barry Stewart comments

Hi Wayne, I'm a Canadian as well. Your points are almost all in line with my thoughts — except on the hand balls. Canada's was an inadvertent touch = not deliberate = no foul. The player Nault was cringing away from a rocket blast and the ball hit her arm.

On the American (uncalled) foul, you see the woman face the ball and deliberately raise her arm to stop its progress. Unlike the later bear hug tackle, this was the ONLY play happening at the time. The ref had to see it.

Sadly, the interpretations by the refs were bass-ackwards... and favoured the Americans both times.

I don't support the claims of pay-offs or collusion. I do agree with claims of incompetence of refs or intimidation by mouthy American players. They are a great team but twice they did not win on merit.