USAvBEL Aerial interception foul

On this aerial pass, the defender moves laterally, slicing across the line of the ball as she should. The real question is whether the interception attempt is outside playable distance and done safely, not whether it's five meters or not. The commentator here gets that wrong.

In slow-motion replay, you can see the distance between players is tough for the umpire to judge from her position. She made the call very early. Even though the player moves up a bit, given how quick her reaction was to assess danger, it seems likely it was within playable distance, especially with the USA player's stick reaching out.

Another issue is that the cameras are at a similar angle to the umpire's view, making it hard for us to see clearly. This call could have gone either way, but the key takeaway is to often ignore commentators' analysis in these situations—they don't always focus on the correct issue.