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I watched it several times. I agree he had his hands up and started to jump before the kick, but that is irrelevant.
This goes directly against what we were coached.
What matters is whether or not he had time to adjust to the flight of the ball. If, while in the air he realised his hands were in the wrong place and moved them to block the ball he could well be said to have hit the ball forward, rather than have it bounce off him.
I could not be sure. Hitting the ball is, of course, worse than trying to catch it and failing.
The time between the ball leaving Nonu's toe and it striking Senatore's hands was less that 0.2s. He would need to react to the trajectory, and adjust accordingly within that time frame Even the best Top Gun fighter pilots are not able to react this quick.
I'm not saying that the referee should realise this, I'm saying it was a marginal call and he should have gone to the TMO.