Did the U.S. Women's National Team Cancel Their Match Just for Safety, or Something More?

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Yesterday, the U.S. Women's national team was due to play a match against Trinidad and Tobago. It was scheduled to take place at Hawaii's Aloha Stadium, and it would have been the USWNT's first trip to the Aloha State. Things, however, didn't go as planned. The team ended up canceling its appearance, last minute.

On Twitter, Julie Foudy, a former national team member and current ESPN commentator, offered this partial explanation:

One of the reasons — Julie Foudy (@JulieFoudy)December 6, 2015

Early this morning, the Players' Tribune published a story written by the U.S. Women, which explained just how things went wrong. It started with an ACL injury to star player Megan Rapinoe, on Friday. The team attributed the injury in part to "a subpar training field."

"The grass on the training pitch itself was in bad shape," the piece continues. "All along the pitch, sewer plates and plastic coverings were laying on the sidelines."

Yikes!

When the players finally saw the conditions at the stadium, they were shocked. As Foudy's photo shows, the field was not in good shape. The players, after speaking with U.S. Soccer, decided to call the match off.

The Players' Tribune piece continued:

This decision wasn't about "turf vs. grass." This was about field conditions and player safety.

It's as simple as that. Soccer is our job. Our bodies are our jobs. And nothing should ever be put in competition with our protection and safety as players.

Judging by Foudy's subsequent Tweets, however, it appears the issue might not be about just injuries.

Being told — Julie Foudy (@JulieFoudy)December 6, 2015

One staff. One nation. One team. — Julie Foudy (@JulieFoudy)December 6, 2015

Playing on artificial turf was perhaps the talking point leading up to the Women's World Cup this past summer—which, of course, took place on artificial turf. The subtext of that debate was about equality between the men's game and the women's. It was unfathomable that a men's World Cup would take place on artificial turf. Why would the women's?

The issue of how women are treated in the global game of course goes much further than field surfaces. Women have been underrepresented at soccer's decision-making levels for years. Only last week, FIFA announced that it would increase the minimum number of women in the organization's 36-member governing body from one to six. On the one hand, that's a six-fold increase; on the other, women will still represent just 17 percent of the FIFA's congress. Seventeen percent.

As World Cup Champions, the U.S. women are, of course, in a unique position to protest when it comes to how they're treated. And canceling a game during the team's Victory Tour is a powerful statement to U.S. Soccer. It denies the organization a lucrative payday.

So safety came first, as it should—but was that all there was to it? I'm not so sure. (It speaks volumes that this statement came through the Players' Tribune rather than an official U.S. Soccer channel.)

It looks like Foudy wasn't either.