The United States’ gritty triumph in Wednesday night’s bizarre Concacaf W Gold Cup semifinal showdown with archrival Canada will long be remembered, will long be celebrated, for so many reasons, not all of them particularly reasonable.
The Americans’ success in the mess into which San Diego State University’s Snapdragon Stadium field devolved was tribute to great perseverance, immense grit, and flashes of beauty here and there, most of all at the finish. Had the Canadians prevailed, the same would be said of them.
In terms of drama and momentum shift, of big plays and sheer ridiculousness, it was a fantastic encounter, an odd classic with so much at stake and so many lessons to impart. That it shouldn’t have been played, that it never should have lasted beyond the first few minutes, is part of the charm.
A deluge just before kickoff left the field unplayable, the ball unable to roll far before puddled to a halt, but play on they did, to nearly everyone’s amazement. Alyssa Naeher ultimately played hero, stopping three penalty kicks — all to virtually the same place, just to her right; all saves she should make if not duped to go the other way — and burying her try from the spot to lead the Americans into Sunday’s final, also at Snapdragon, against Brazil.
The narrative, not withstanding conditions, was thrilling, more so as it proceeded. The Yanks led twice, Jaedyn Shaw pouncing on a bad-field gift for an early lead that lasted deep into the second half, and then Sophia Smith, also one-on-one, with what looked to be the overtime winner. Neither lead held.
Jordyn Huitema‘s header in the 82nd forced overtime, and penalties were product of Naeher’s collision with Vanessa Giles as both charged for Jade Rose‘s serve over the top, barely won by the Canadian center back, in OT stoppage. Mexican referee Katia Garcia, after a VAR review, ruled that Giles had been fouled, Adriana Leon‘s 127th-minute penalty kick made it 2-2, the tiebreaker arrived right after the ensuing kickoff — with another bit of mess that we’ll get to in time. Smith, stepping to the penalty spot for the first time since her crushing miss contributed to last summer’s World Cup exit, converted the first as the U.S. advanced on a 3-1 tally.
Add in all the other stuff — the rainfall, the turf that alternately killed balls and morphed into a Slip n’ Slide, Garcia’s emphatic displays of the field’s inadequacy and the failure by Concacaf, hardly a revered institution, to do the right thing — and you’ve got a fiasco. A thrilling and ultimately intoxicating fiasco.
“Why isn’t CONCACAF calling this match?” former U.S. captain/veteran television analyst Julie Foudy posted on X/Twitter early in the proceedings. “Play it [tomorrow]. Someone is going to get hurt.”
And then: “This is so insane. STOP THE MATCH.” Later on, she dubbed the event “ridiculous.”
There was agreement on the field.
“I think that the game was pure comedy,” said Shaw, who pounced on a puddle-deadened Giles back pass to provide the 20th-minute advantage. “I think that I was the first one to face-plant in a puddle. So that was awesome. I got up like I was drowning.”
‘There’s nothing that we can do’
Rain had been falling much of the day — on and off, heavy at times — but had played no impact on Brazil’s red card-aided 3-0 romp over Mexico in the first semifinal, and the field was fine during warmups for the second game. The deluge hit after the teams returned to the locker rooms for final preparations, and they emerged for the anthems to a very different landscape.
“When we came out, we were like, ‘Oh … this is bad,’ ” Smith said. “I think the first 10, 15 minutes, we kind of kept looking at the fourth referee, if they were going to call it or not. They didn’t, that’s their choice, and we knew we just had to play as best we could and get a result.”
Garcia stopped the game in each half to roll the ball across a portion of the field while engaged with match commissioner Monique Andre, a confederation official and longtime leader in Haiti’s federation, making clear its unplayability. The game went on.
“There’s nothing that we can do,” said U.S. captain Lindsey Horan, who was surprised it wasn’t halted. “Me and Jessie [Fleming, Canada’s captain], we tried to speak to the ref, and there was nothing that [the match officials] were going to do, so the game was moving forward.”
Whose decision was it? That’s a bit foggy.
“I don’t really know who makes the ultimate call. I heard it might be the center referee,” Alex Morgan said. “Both teams, unanimously, were talking to each other on the field, thinking, ‘There’s no way this game is going to continue,’ in the first, second, third minute. And after the ref just continued to let play go, we realized that you have to dig in, it’s going to be a grind this whole match. You can’t really roll your eyes or give up on a play or whatever it may be, because the ball was doing crazy stuff today.”
A Concacaf spokesperson said, in response to a press-box query, that “it is solely at the discretion of the referee as to whether the field is safe and playable.” Former FIFA referee Christina Unkel, the analyst on Paramount+’s stream, took issue with that, explaining in the postgame show that the reality is quite different.
“Technically and practically, by law, it is always in the ultimate decision of the referee to make that decision,” said Unkel, who called Garcia a “great referee” in an X/Twitter post. “That being said, practically speaking, there is a match commissioner at each of these Concacaf matches, and as we saw within the first, early minutes of this game, the referee went and demonstrated that the ball was not in fact rolling, when she went over to near the fourth-official station, which is where the match commissioner stands. … It was very clear from [Garcia’s] demonstrative showing that she does not necessarily think this is a safe condition but is being told to continue this match by that match commissioner.
“I want to be very clear: Yes, by practical, technical sense, [Garcia] does and can end that game, but practically speaking, those of us who have been on that side — and I’m going to spill the tea a little bit — that is almost out of our control when it comes to these types of competitions.”
U.S. interim head coach Twila Kilgore said that the game should “probably not” have gone on. Canada head coach Bev Priestman said it was “obvious the game was unplayable.” That they found ways to play, to create some coherence from the chaos, made for a most interestingly sloppy affair.
First step: Abandon the plan.
“Those decisions aren’t my decision, and if the referees make those decisions and the game goes on, it’s our job to figure out how to win …,” Kilgore said. “We had a game plan, they had a game plan. Pretty much goes out the window in the first minute. I think both sides did a good job of adjusting to those conditions, so you have that.”
‘It was kind of fun’
The conditions were, Shaw out it, “hysterical,” although they improved “a little,” Smith said, after stadium workers squeegied puddles at halftime.
How bad was it?
“I mean, you saw it,” Smith said. “It was exactly what it looked like. It was hard. The ball wasn’t rolling like how you want a ball to roll, so you kind of had to change how you play. You had to keep the ball in the air and try and get in behind and do what we could. It wasn’t an easy game to play in.”
Kilgore noted that “the game is played under all sorts of conditions all over the world.”
“Our conditions happen to be a ton of rain and standing water on the field,” she said. “You’ve got to find a way to get it done, and these things do happen in football. So I would say being able to adjust to [such circumstances is a valuable quality], and it takes a certain mentality to do that. And we did that today, and we’re not going to shy away from celebrating that, because it’s not easy.”
It was a parade of falling, slipping, colliding, seeking stability, trying to stay afoot, overrunning balls as ponds swallowed them up. Possession was virtually impossible, so both sides went direct, and the back-and-forth occasionally led to an opportunity. The U.S. had more of them — an early breakaway in which Trinity Rodman was effectively dispossessed by a pool of water, three Horan headers and went just wide — and terrific defensive plays by Tierna Davidson took care of two of Canada’s best.
Was it at least fun? You know, the way it was fun to play in such conditions when we were children?
“It was kind of fun,” Shaw said. Horan? “No.” Girma: “What did other people say?”
Some say yes, some say no.
“It was fun that we got the result and we won,” Girma responded. “And I’m proud of us for doing that.”
The circumstances fostered discovery, stuff like back passes are a bad idea — the U.S. backline either cleared forward or out for a throw in. Stuff like, Horan said, “how can you get the ball off of the ground?”
“Sometimes you go to hit a long ball, and the ball would friggin’ not leave the ground,” she said. “So I was just like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ I saw Jessie flick it up one time to hit it, and I’m like, ‘Why am I not trying that?’ It was one of those things, like, where can you hit a long [diagonal ball] and keep it away from the goalie. Like, you never think we are going to play that kind of tactical game.”
Shaw, maybe the tournament’s most lauded breakout star, and Smith, who’d had a mostly quiet Gold Cup, were standouts. Shaw’s goal was her fourth of the competition and made the teen forward the first U.S. player to score in each of her first four international starts, dating to a friendly October victory over Colombia at Snapdragon, her home field with the NWSL’s San Diego Wave.
“The conditions really helped me get my goal,” she said “That was the main way I got it I just saw a big, old puddle and just kept on running and then chipped it over.”
‘A moment that she’s needed’
Smith came on in the 65th for Rodman, kept pressure on the Canadian backline, and her goal was sweet. It followed a ping-ponging sequence inside Canadian territory, with Emily Sonnett — a late substitute who was magnificent doing anything and everything in midfield — chipping to about 10 yards outside Canada’s box. Rose Lavelle won the aerial battle with Rose, sending the ball toward the net, and Smith latched on against goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, also a Wave standout. She finished succinctly to the right side, just her second goal for the U.S. since the World Cup.
SUBSCRIBE TO KEEP READING
Start for $0 & enjoy free unlimited access for 30 days.
- Daily TV listings for U.S. and global soccer.
- Exclusive interviews with players and coaches.
- Expert analysis of top soccer headlines.
- Cancel anytime.
Already have an account? Sign in here.
CHECK OUT MORE STORIES
Not ready to subscribe? Sign up here for our free newsletter.
Already have an account? Sign in here.