TFD Opinions: Terrible Ref at USA vs. Brazil World Cup Game

Update: USA miraculously won but the ref still sucked and all my points stand.

I don't watch much women's soccer; this might be the 1st full game I've ever watched. It didn't take long to find out that refs in the Women's World Cup are as terrible as every other sport. Not only was there this handball in a previous game, but almost every major call by the ref (Jacqui Melksham from Australia) and her assistants was incorrect, including two that led to Brazil's goals. How do you get to the quarterfinals of the World Cup and have amateur hour when it comes to refs?

I get that there's human error in all sports but there's an easy solution in the form of instant replay. Human error is not a part of the game that needs to be maintained, contrary to traditionalists who refuse to accept it. Constantly, games are ruined by horrendous calls by referees that could have easily been overturned. Tell Armando Galaragga that he didn't get his perfect game because of easily reversible human error but we should keep bad referees as the deciders of sporting events. The strawman is that instant replay would slow the game down too much. First of all, a few extra minutes to result in a better officiated game based on player performance not referee decisions would be well worth it. In addition, if they could just go to instant replay, it would cut a lot of the time spent arguing calls and reduce the concern about players bad mouthing referees. Finally, the number of replays would obviously be limited. You wouldn't be able to challenge anything and everything. College football and tennis have both come up with systems that are imperfect but a vast improvement over trusting the eyes of human beings in live action.

I don't think people realize that not only are the highly noticeable errors like the Jim Joyce perfect game call ruining games but also small moments that subtly influence outcomes like pass interference calls on 3rd and 10 that set up big drives. Sports should be determined by the players in uniform not the referees and anything that can be done to increase accuracy without noticeably burdening the pace of the game should be done. It's the 21st century, sports have to catch up with the technology available.