SAN DIEGO — Red card, CONCACAF. Grab a seat. Shamefully, negligently, unapologetically, you've earned it.

The fact that the regional governing body failed to stop the United States and Canada from playing in an Amazon rain forest during Wednesday's W Gold Cup soccer semifinal at waterlogged Snapdragon Stadium ranked beyond bone-headed.

No matter the highly entertaining finish that saw the Americans win in in a penalty shootout after the teams played to a 2-2 tie, it was flat-out dangerous and inexcusable.

Playing on as the San Diego skies emptied was disgraceful. If the night simply had been altered, that would have been one thing. The game, though, was hardly recognizable as some of the world's best were reduced to stop-and-start, pirouetting Woodstock attendees.

Every moment seemed to be a hamstring or ACL injury in waiting.

Why? Just why?

Passes came with parking brakes. Running resembled Navy SEAL training snapshots. How on earth did the path of least resistance and keeping the trains on time trump safety, especially with the Olympics a mere five months away?

U.S. legend Julie Foudy spoke for everyone with an ounce of sanity on X: "This is so insance. STOP THE MATCH. #uswnt". A few minutes later, the San Diegan added: "Why isn't CONCACAF calling this match. Play it tmrw. Someone is going to get hurt."

"Probably not," U.S. interim coach Twila Kilgore said when asked whether the game should have been played. "But those decisions aren't my decisions. ... It's our job to figure out how to win."

As stadium workers pushed water away with squeegees with the furiousness of curling sweepers at halftime, you wished the handful of them luck.

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