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@kev
Wow, i love reading the massive generalisations throughout this thread. A few people seem really keen on analysing this one game to death, and arriving at far-reaching conclusions about The State of Bike Polo, or, The Differences Between "N.A." and "European" Bike Polo... as if Crazy Canucks' or CMD's style exemplifies a standardized style played on each continent ... as if there are not dozens of styles of polo on each continent, never mind country or city.
This was an entertaining game, but it was also the most physical final i've seen in a tournament in a while. If i recall correctly, none of last dozen games at NAHBPC had this level of body-on-body or bike-on-bike contact. Definitely not the podium games, one of which involved Crazy Canucks. Beaver Boys (who seem to be getting some blame due to the "buffer zone" quote) vs Machine Politics in the 2010 WHBPC final didn't have this kind of physicality either.
I'm not saying this to "defend" N.A. polo (i don't really care), i'm just pointing out that these simple Us and Them narratives are facile, distracting, and unhelpful. Guess what? There are players who play physically all over the world, and there are players that skirt rules all over the world. Occasionally players who skirt rules can elicit physical play by their opponents, and players who play physical can elicit the skirting of rules by their opponents, etc etc...
All that said, I agree with a lot of the specific points people are making about what could/should have been called a penalty, and i think most refs at the WHBPC would as well, but hindsight on video camera is very different than reffing a game with 500 screaming people, players that can't hear you, and a mid-court vantage point that is almost always behind the play (i think we need to move to having two head refs, each at 1/3 mark... but that's another story). Also, to correct a point made above, Ben Schultz from Chicago reffed the final game. Martin from East Van was the timer, and he hopped out on the court to wave off Greg's goal, to make clear that it had happened several seconds after time had expired.