US-Costa Rica, the snow (R): FIFA ruling: the result stands!

Come on, this is the real story of the game.

I'm glad we won, but now I'm pulling for Costa Rica to also qualify. Any team that's willing to hack it out in those ridiculous conditions deserves some love.

After the game the (idiot) reporter asked Clint what went on when the ref had stopped the game and he said that they were just trying to clear out the penalty area. It didn't appear that way to me though.

Big ups to Costa Rica...but is playing in some central american mud-bog on a postage stamp that much easier?

yeah credit to Costa Rica. If they hadnt take so long in the second half to realize that you just need to hoof it long, the could have been a lot more dangerous.

Someone needs to coin a name for this game!

let it snowwwww let it snowwww let it snowwwwwwwwwwwwwww

IT'S A YETI!

SnowClassico

I don't know whether this game was an argument for MLS switching to a winter schedule, or an argument against it. It was terrible soccer. But it was one hell of a spectacle!

A glorious 3 points that we'll talk about forever!

It wasnt soccer. Abominable Snowball? American Hockey? I dunno, I think i need some help on this one.

SNOWMONSTER didn't give an F tonight

Problem with MLS going to a winter league, is teams like SLC, Colorado, Kansas City, Chicago, Philly, New York, DC, Columbus, Montreal, Toronto all play where it snows some what regularly. They could maybe go with an extended winter like Russia and some other Eastern European teams, though.

Yeah it would only be a matter of time before players would be getting seriously injured just because of the snow. No thanks.

Props to both teams for sticking it out. To me it looked like the ref wanted to end it and both teams convinced him not to... YETI

I have no problem playing the game in Denver ,despite the weather because the US needs to get any advantage they can before playing in altitude in the smog in Mexico City. Unless they found a place in the US that is at altitude with a stadium in hot conditions, this is the only place they could play. Plus, unless we play Canada, we have somewhat of an advantage in the snow.

I will say this much in defense of Denver --

We scheduled this game there knowing that the conditions might be bad. That was part of the whole calculus. We knew snow was possible.

Costa Rica's coach is calling the game "an embarrassment for soccer." But I feel no shame about the result.

From USSF's perspective, I think they believe this all worked out just fine. We got exactly what we wanted out of Denver: 3 points.

Red Bull Arena take note how it is done...

Well, it's much easier to postpone an MLS match than a WCQer. But switching the calendar for MLS would be for other reasons, mainly participating in the transfer window for business and not losing players most summers to international tournaments, like the GC, WC and Copa, not having the most important game, playoffs, subjected to winter weather and having the playoffs in nice spring weather instead.

There's arguments both ways though. It'll only happen if it makes financial sense.

The Costa Rican coach can go f*&# himelf. They have chosen to play the US in Saprissa stadium (instead of the national stadium) with its god-awful turf. That has as big an impact on the game as the snow does.

Not sure why people keep saying this. There's no reason we couldn't have trained all week at high altitude, then flew a couple hours to SKC or Hou for the game. Training at high altitude doesn't mean you must play the game in Den.

https://twitter.com/ussoccer/status/315333738538082304

It takes 1-2 days to get a person's body properly acclimatized to altitude. If they flew to another site, they would waste a day or two of solid altitude training because of the amount of time they would spend at the other site. In addition, you dont want players, most of whom are from Europe, flying constantly.

Can we call this the first ever SnowCup Qualifier for the US?

Was at the game. Conditions were rough. That was a spectacle. Not much of a soccer game though. Oh well; 3 points.