How much water has to fill a soccer pitch before a match should be canceled? If it's the UEFA women's U-19 final, it appears the answer is that anything short of a canoe being able to float on the field is just fine.
Seriously, just look at this video from Sunday's game between Spain and France:
Notice how the player kicks the ball with full force and it goes a few inches before it stops dead in its tracks? Yeah, that's not really how soccer is supposed to be played.
The match in Slovakia was suspended at halftime for about two hours as storms pummeled the field. Grounds crew did make an effort to clean up the pitch but, uh, they were going to need a lot more people and a lot more shovels than this:
It's unclear whether the water was to blame for this excruciating stoppage-time miss, though. With Spain down by a goal and given a golden opportunity to equalize, captain Nahikari Garcia was right in front of goal and somehow managed to sky it over the crossbar:
That miss certainly rained on the comeback parade. Spain had come halfway back from a two-goal deficit with a goal from Lucia Garcia, but it wasn't enough in the end.
Credit goes to France, who weathered the conditions and pulled out the 2-1 victory on goals from Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Grace Geyoro. Here's hoping they can celebrate somewhere sunny and dry.
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