Can You Believe This Field that USA's National Soccer Team Played On Today?

[Mudge]

The US football (soccer) team played Costa Rica in Denver, in the middle of a Rockie Mountain blizzard that eventually had more than 6-12 inches of snow on parts of the field-- and the ref and players argued for completing it (including strangely enough, the CR players who were losing 1-0)... but of course, after losing, the CR head coach and CR national team rep insisted it should have been called off and rescheduled. (By the way, Northern Ireland called off a game for snow, today.) I still can't believe they played (or even tried to play) in those conditions.

See the post-game review here, with video of the game and field conditions:
http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/13...states?cc=5901

P.S-- The interview after the game is hilarious, with Alexei Lalas wearing some kind of huge, hideous coon-skin (beaver?) cap, with big clumps of snow on his coat's shoulder epaulettes.

[OldPhiKap]

Tried to watch the game, could notfollow the ball in the blizzard. Needed win by the USA team.

[uh_no]

The US football (soccer) team played Costa Rica in Denver, in the middle of a Rockie Mountain blizzard that eventually had more than 6-12 inches of snow on parts of the field-- and the ref and players argued for completing it (including strangely enough, the CR players who were losing 1-0)... but of course, after losing, the CR head coach and CR national team rep insisted it should have been called off and rescheduled. (By the way, Northern Ireland called off a game for snow, today.) I still can't believe they played (or even tried to play) in those conditions.

See the post-game review here, with video of the game and field conditions:
http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/13...states?cc=5901

P.S-- The interview after the game is hilarious, with Alexei Lalas wearing some kind of huge, hideous coon-skin (beaver?) cap, with big clumps of snow on his coat's shoulder epaulettes.

bet they would have been perfectly happy to play if they had been the ones up 1-0....

[Mabdul Doobakus]

I had no idea this was being played until my Twitter feed was flooded with comments about the game. It was pretty mesmerizing to watch, though probably less fun for soccer enthusiasts. I always like my sports played in the snow when possible and think soccer would make an interesting Winter Olympics event. Not sure what this rule is re: throwing snowballs at your opponents.

[Gmadaduke]

According to ESPN, Costa Rica has filed a formal protest (i) asking for the game to be replayed and (ii) asking that the ref be suspended. Hopefully the result is upheld.

[uh_no]

According to ESPN, Costa Rica has filed a formal protest (i) asking for the game to be replayed and (ii) asking that the ref be suspended. Hopefully the result is upheld.

I can't imagine there's much there...both teams had to deal with the same field....one team won...

[Ben1029]

When the ref stopped the game around the 57' minute, the CR players appeared to want to continue as they had just created some good chances against the US defense. The US wanted to continue as well. I don't think that CR has much of an argument here.

[NovaScotian]

I can't imagine there's much there...both teams had to deal with the same field....one team won...

well, it was still a little bit insane. at some point, the weather makes it so that you're not actually playing soccer anymore. yes the usmnt won the game, but with a field like that, what game was it?

[hurleyfor3]

Whose idea was it to schedule a game in Denver in the middle of March? You know March is the snowiest month of the year here, right? And the snow systems tend to be of the high-standard-deviation type, a few big systems rater than an inch or two at a time, at least on the Front Range.

[dukeofcalabash]

Whose idea was it to schedule a game in Denver in the middle of March? You know March is the snowiest month of the year here, right? And the snow systems tend to be of the high-standard-deviation type, a few big systems rater than an inch or two at a time, at least on the Front Range.

There was a soccer game? Played where? It snowed? News to most. Hope they win the next one.

[tbyers11]

Whose idea was it to schedule a game in Denver in the middle of March? You know March is the snowiest month of the year here, right? And the snow systems tend to be of the high-standard-deviation type, a few big systems rater than an inch or two at a time, at least on the Front Range.

USMNT schedules most of their Feb/Mar World Cup qualifiers in cold weather locales figuring that it will give them a big advantage against their opponents who are all warm weather Caribbean and Central American nations. They have scheduled games against Mexico for Columbus Ohio in Feb a couple of times. I'm sure they didn't mind a little snow.

To the protest, as someone who grew up playing soccer in Wisconsin and played several games in snow the footing and visibility isn't any worse than in a driving rainstorm. The only thing is you can't really see the lines. I doubt FIFA does anything with this protest. But then again they took giant bribes to have the '18 and '22 World Cups in Russia and Qatar so who knows.

[bedeviled]

I think the main reason the game was scheduled in Colorado (as opposed to other cold-weather locales such as Columbus or Boston), was to prepare the team for the high-altitude game coming up against Mexico.

I agree with tbyers11 - the snowstorm really isn't substantially different than a hard rain. The cold does give the US an advantage, but I must add that our more equatorial opponents get a very significant advantage from playing us in overwhelmingly hot/humid environments. And, as alluded, Mexico City offers a high-altitude advantage to Mexico. Fair is fair...or, unfair is unfair...whatever.