Six-second handling penalty on Canada's goalkeeper was justified (Video)

Here at Holdout Sports, we've had a chance to look at some video around one of the controversial calls made during Monday's Olympic women's soccer semifinal match between Canada and USA.

For those of you who missed it, with Canada up 3-2 in the 77th minute, USA was awarded a free kick after Canada's goalkeeper Erin McLeod was called for breaking the six second handling rule, effectively a "delay of game" penalty.

This penalty is virtually never enforced or called. However, after viewing the evidence, we've reached this conclusion: the call was definitely justified.

As evidence, please watch the video of McLeod's pattern of excessive handling of the ball during the second half of the game.



As can be seen here:

• After catching the ball at 57:47, McLeod holds onto the ball until 58:05.  That's 18 seconds.
• After catching the ball at 60:13, McLeod holds onto the ball until 60:30.  That's 17 seconds.
• Finally, after catching the ball on the corner kick at 76:36, McLeod held the ball for at least 10 seconds before kicking the ball away.

McLeod was repeatedly holding onto the ball longer than six seconds.  McLeod was breaking the rules, and the referee finally called her on it.  Where's the controversy? 

Video via LiveLeak.  H/T 101gg.