There really was one dominant theme to the US women’s national team’s 1-0 international friendly defeat of Mexico in a friendly at Rio Tinto Stadium on Wednesday night: snow.
Snow angels. Snow tees. And those game plans about playing the ball wide on the wings? Snowed in.
“We needed to re-think and play everything forward,” U.S. coach Pia Sundhage told reporters after the match. “It’s very, very hard to play under these conditions. I’m very happy about the way that they played.”
The snowy conditions created some unusual events in this match. The first came during pre-game warm-ups, when several women from the U.S. side broke out in an impromptu snowball fight.
The second came after forward Abby Wambach scored the game-winner in the second half. The goal celebration immediately ensued, featuring the entire team doing snow angels.
“We were walking about before the game started, and I said ‘If anybody scores, snow angels for sure!’” Wambach said.
And perhaps the strangest moment came in the second half, with Mexico was pressing for the equalizer. They earned a free kick about 35 yards out, and one of their midfielders immediately started to scoop the snow into a pile to create a snow “tee.” It’s unclear what the official FIFA ruling is on such a maneuver, but the referee quelled the idea immediately.
“You literally cannot prepare for it,” Wambaugh said of the conditions. “It’s an experience that all of us will probably talk about for a long time to come. We’ll never forget Salt Lake City for this reason.”
When asked if they had ever played in these conditions before, veteran midfielder Kristine Lilly responded bluntly: “No, never. Never had this much snow. We really didn’t know what to do.”
