Sunil Gulati, the president of U.S. Soccer, said the last-minute cancellation of a women’s national team exhibition game over the weekend in Honolulu because of an unsafe artificial turf field was “absolutely a black eye for this organization,” and he apologized to the team’s fans, players and support staff for the federation’s “series of mistakes” in failing to ensure that the field was suitable for an international match.
Gulati, who made the decision to cancel the game against Trinidad and Tobago less than 24 hours before it was set to be played Sunday at Aloha Stadium, said that federation protocol was generally to make a field inspection of new or unusual venues ahead of time.