Via "'Absolute disgrace': LAFC coach criticizes MLS for playing in blizzard/Real Salt Lake beat LAFC 3-0 in blizzard-like conditions/Referee forced to carve lines into snow on free-kicks" (The Guardian)(And they had to use an orange ball).How much snow does it take to postpone a game? 😄 pic.twitter.com/S7ykepHLOF
— Matteo Bonetti (@Bonetti) March 3, 2024
"It was impossible conditions. I feel terrible for the players that we put them through this. It was an absolute joke we had to play today. It was one of the worst professional sporting events I’ve ever seen in my life. The game could have and should have been called. In my opinion, it was an absolute disgrace we had to play today."
Said the manager of the team that lost.
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41 comments:
As a former (high school) soccer referee, the basic FIFA rules only state that the field must be safe for play. Weather-wise, that usually means games are called or postponed for things like lightning, tornadoes, or maybe deep snow or dangerously low temps in winter.
NFL teams play in snow regularly. Teams in the Snow Belt like Green Bay, Chicago, and Buffalo will run snow blowers along the yard lines during commercial breaks (obviously, soccer doesn't have such breaks). It's all a matter of preparation.
Coach wants a fair weather only sport, he should take up baseball.
The only football games I have ever found entertaining were the snow bowl played in a sub-zero bilzzard, and the mud bowl, long ago.
It was one of the worst professional sporting events I’ve ever seen in my life.
Yes. The rest of the world would agree…oh wait- was he talking about the weather and not american soccer in general?
Forget it Jake. It's soccer.
John Henry
All press is good press. Otherwise, who would have known there was a thing like LAFC and they played a game in Salt Lake?
How can you tell the snowflakes from the snow?
As a former (high school) soccer referee, the basic FIFA rules only state that the field must be safe for play. Weather-wise, that usually means games are called or postponed for things like lightning, tornadoes, or maybe deep snow or dangerously low temps in winter.
Law 5 provides that the referee is not liable for decisions such as abandining the match due to weather:
"that the condition of the field of play or its surrounds or that the weather conditions are such as to allow or not to allow a match to take place"
Local guidance (USSF) should provide additional guidance, but I can't find any for USSF... so it looks like the match officials made the correct decision.
NFL “Snow Game” Moments
(Youtube)
For all I know, all the players are Europeans or something. But it would be funny if Utah guys said to LA guys: we're playing in the snow assholes. Born and bred in the briar patch. Like Green Bay.
The winning coach might privately agree, but will not say anything.
Soccer is for drama queens.
Didn't the MLS season end just a couple months ago? It doesn't have much of an off-season.
Not that it matters to me, but I think a May-Sept schedule should be sufficient.
I went to an Ireland v. USA friendly match that rained so hard there was standing water on the pitch. The ball would hit the ground and just stop. Needless to say, this match was in Dublin, and the Irish had a distinct advantage in the rain.
Adults can make their own decision. It hard to find something I care about less.
We played two matches in ice storms back in 1976-7. This was in Georgia where the high school soccer season was a winter sport. We won both cause we were mainly football players and would typically beat the crap out of whoever we played, though we usually lost the games.
I like when these fair-weather sports teams have to travel north and get their comeuppance from the hardier folk.
And then to whine about it! So unsportsmanlike. Just stay in the over-vaunted mild weather of L.A. if you can't take it.
And when you lose, suck it up. In real football, no one would rail against the unfairness of snow. You're not helping the reputation of the football that is soccer.
Theme of the day .. choices. Good. Bad. Too many. Too few.
I suppose we can expect more dreadfully snowy soccer games like this in the future because of Climate Change.
Meh. Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Green Bay Packers – Dec. 1, 1985. The Snow Bowl. Fans that could make came on their snowmobiles.
Also: Total Agreement with Ann Althouse at 736 AM!
Is there anything better than seeing the 49ers (or Jaguars) play at Lambeau when it's 10 degrees? I think not.
Like Bud Light, this sport has a way of turning grown men into little girls.
Was raining too hard in LA
The Patriots game snow plow is enshrined in the Patriots hall of fame…
There are rites he could perform in Democratic, Aztec, etc societies, for fair weather progress and climate stasis. Let him bray.
Althouse writes, "In real football, no one would rail against the unfairness of snow. You're not helping the reputation of the football that is soccer."
Let us keep in mind the twenty-somethings who play professionally, started as the children of the "soccer moms" who were deemed to be the harbingers of the inevitable Clinton hegemony that would dominate the deplorables for decades if it weren't for the evil genius/pompous moron Trump (and Obama, who cannot be vilified for clocking the Clintons because any shortage of worshipful praise for the dark-skinned is vile racism). Besides deciding the fates of everyone, the soccer moms were also the ones who taught their offspring to expect and demand rewards and praise for just showing up, unless it's snowing, in which case the trophy comes by UPS.
"Lloyd W. Robertson said...
But it would be funny if Utah guys said to LA guys: we're playing in the snow assholes. Born and bred in the briar patch. Like Green Bay."
"Blogger Ann Althouse said...
I like when these fair-weather sports teams have to travel north and get their comeuppance from the hardier folk."
"MadisonMan said...
Also: Total Agreement with Ann Althouse at 736 AM!
Is there anything better than seeing the 49ers (or Jaguars) play at Lambeau when it's 10 degrees? I think not."
These comments are moronic and ignorant. Players on all teams, including Green Bay, come from all over the place, many from warm weather areas. Hell, all of the Packer's QBs since Bart Starr did. Starr was an Alabamian, Brett Favre was from Mississippi, Aaron Rodgers was from California, as was Jordan Love. Virtually none of the college season regardless of where they play is very cold, and certainly rarely snowy. Bowl games are played in warm weather venues or in domes. Same with the NFL...sure it can get super cold in Green Bay, but the have road games and dome games and at home they heat the turf to keep it from freezing and snow is rarely an issue, they heat the benches, have helmet heaters, and players wear high tech clothing to protect them from the cold. Northern teams have indoor practice facilities, the Packers do. So players don't have a chance to really get acclimated to the local climate. Thinking teams from warms climates can't deal with the cold of Green Bay...or Buffalo, or wherever is just dumb.
I think it's tougher for northern teams to go to places like Miami, Tampa, and Nashville because of the oppressive heat and humidity.
Hey, it's soccer. Why do they even keep score anyway? Its rules are designed to end in a tie so the crappier team doesn't feel bad. Just a good cardio workout for the players and an occasional goal to keep the few fans awake periodically.
"In real football, no one would rail against the unfairness of snow."
Real football. I've often heard that formulation, usually over beer at the local bar, and usually to my bemusement. (I was about to write sports bar, but I realized non-sports bars are mostly archeology sites these days.) What could real mean in this context? One assumes it's a relative term, real football is what football means to the speaker, which is a very peculiar usage of real as a concept. Quantum physics must by the demands of nature deal with a slippery distinction between real and virtual, but sports?
How real football came to be called football must be a convoluted tale. In essence, what we have is a gladiatorial contest involving a non-ball being advanced to a goal by numerous violent means generally performed by the non-feet of the combatants. The other real football acquired its English name in the 14th century as a descriptive term of an illegal and detestable activity practiced in many villages and manors when real Englishmen ought to be practicing their archery. Since real football is a younger tradition than the other real football, then the prior claim argument must belong to the other real football, which does involve a ball that conforms to the usual notion of ball and does involve non-ambulatory actions of the feet applied to the ball.
Conversely, observing Yankee travel baseball teams come down to East Cobb in July and watching them disintegrate in the muggy heat was always fun.
Never mind the NFL, how is this worse than the sideways, just-above-freezing rain that UK footballers play in frequently? My kids used to play rugby matches in 30s-40s rain and the Irish coach would call it "perfect rugby weather". Stop whining, MLS players.
Pussies.
Real football is played in the snow.
Yeah, playing soccer in the snow and ice makes about as much sense as playing basketball or Baseball in the rain and snow.
Rugby and Football can be played in almost any weather because you can just run with the ball. And the passes are fairly straight-forward and the ball can still be caught. Soccer needs you to manipulate the ball, and manuever with it. Rain/Snow/Ice make that almost impossible.
BTW, has any noticed the obnoxious SWPL types have been dying out? I guess now that Soccer is more popular and has large numbers of Latino fans in the USA, the snobby Euro appeal is over.
Soccer: The game for talented, dramatic whiners who are always ready for their close-up..
Home-field advantage, another oft-heard phrase over beer at the local bar referring to an elusive ascendancy belonging to the home team, whatever that means. You'd think "home-field advantage" would be more often used in the context of baseball rather than real football, but it seldom is, although the venue of play is more strictly defined in real football than in baseball.
In this case of the other real football match in Salt Lake City, the home-field advantage could be the climate. Heavy snowfalls in Salt Lake City are common. Not so much in Los Angeles. So the management of the L.A. team complains and ascribes his team's loss more to the whims of nature than to the skill of the opponents. Ungentlemanly, indeed. And probably rare in the other real football generally. Looking into the background of FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association) I notice that many member teams hail from warm climates. The famously torrid and equatorial Brazil has won the FIFA Cup five times, an unbeaten record despite 65% of all World Cup venues being held in temperate climates between late May and early July and distinctly cooler than what the non-complaining Brazilians are used to. The 1962 Cup Finals witnessed Brazil facing Czechoslovakia in Santigo, Chile in not quite winter conditions, but close to it. The snow-deprived Brazilians prevailed and the cold-adapted Czechs didn't complain. Ergo, those crybaby Angelenos need a good spanking.
Sports in bad weather is interesting because players aren't selected for it, so it's very random which players can function normally and which ones can't. With 20 players on the field, there might be four or five advancing things, while everyone else is just sliding around.
@Quaestor --
SLC is a semi-arid desert in the rainshadow of several mountain ranges to its west, so it actually doesn't get much snow. Winter high temps also tend to be about 40 degrees daily, so what little snow we do get tends to melt off within a couple of days.
That said, spring storms that drop an inch or two (which was all this storm did) often happen a time or 3 per month, so it's not unheard of either. We actually had a similar storm back on Tuesday and then again on Saturday, so they can even happen close together, though again.... it's pretty rare. And Tuesday's snow had completely melted off by Thursday, in case you wonder, so we still didn't even get "snow on top of snow."
Those fair-weather whiners.
https://fifpro.org/en/supporting-players/health-and-performance/extreme-weather-and-climate-change/extreme-weather-in-football/
FIFA’s position on extreme heat
If there is a WGBT of more than 32°C (89.6°F) cooling breaks are mandatory in both halves of a match, around the 30th minute and 75th minute; the decision on whether to suspend or cancel the match is at the discretion of competition organisers.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/how-mls-measures-and-manages-extreme-heat-conditions-matches
Here’s how that measurement could affect the game’s timeline:
If the WBGT temperature reads less than 92.3 F, there will be no change to the current scheduled timeline.
If the WBGT temperature reads at or above 92.3 F, the match will go into a delay. Similar to a severe weather delay, the match will not start or resume until it is safe to do so. During a delay, the referees will periodically take measurements until the temperature is safe.
If the WBGT taken 60 minutes before the game is less than 92.3 F, then everything will continue as normal. Referees will take the second WBGT reading immediately after the conclusion of pre-match warm-ups. If that reading meets or exceed 92.3 F, then the game will be delayed as above.
If the WGBT is safe after pre-game warm-ups, the game will kick off as scheduled. The referees will then take the third WBGT reading immediately following the referee’s whistle to end the first half of play. If the WBGT reading meets or exceeds 92.3 F, then the same delay procedures will go ahead.
I played soccer in high school and until I was 50 in a rec league.
These kinds of games are always a blast to play in.
Especially in a rainstorm on a muddy field.
The best...
https://www.premierleague.com/news/2426886
"Enjoy the best of the Premier League in the snow" [video at link]
Youtube Alternative: https://youtu.be/Rjxeekbe3xM
I guess the LAFC isn't ready to play at the Premier levels.
Bowl games are played in warm weather venues or in domes.
Not anymore they aren't. Boise. Boston. New York.
Men in shorts and describing thing that should be smaller as larger.
Links victory.
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