American soccer has dealt with two high-profile instances of extreme weather disrupting professional games in the last week. In both cases, despite conditions making it impossible to play at anything close to normal, the games went on.
The most recent of the two happened on Wednesday, when steady and heavy rains flooded the field at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, Caif. before the U.S. women’s national team’s Gold Cup semifinal match against Canada. Conditions meant the ball could not travel on the ground farther than a couple of feet in most parts of the field, which played a direct role in the United States’ opening goal.
JAEDYN SHAW RIDING THE STORMMMM 🔥🤩 pic.twitter.com/0gq2tkR2sa
— Attacking Third (@AttackingThird) March 7, 2024
“It was honestly insane,” Shaw said. “We had such a good warmup … the ball was moving really fast, and we were excited to just play and have a really intense game, and then we came back out and we were like, ‘What’s happening?’”
Asked if the game should have been played, USWNT interim head coach Twila Kilgore said, “Probably not.”
The previous Saturday, an MLS match between Real Salt Lake and Los Angeles FC was similarly affected, but by a different form of precipitation. That game, which was held at America First…
