Spain lost the European Women's Under-19 Championship in the worst way possible thanks to brutal field conditions
For all the beautiful things that the game of soccer produces, it also produces some heartbreaking mistakes. One of those happened at the worst possible time: in added time at the end of the U-19 Women's European Championship between Spain and France.
However, to be fair to Nahikari Garcia, the captain for Spain who missed the wide open shot from about five yards away, it's not entirely her fault. Here's the shot that would have tied up the match:
As you can see in the replay, Spain was dealing with a water-logged field.
Just look at that pitch. It's absolutely soaked. It poured throughout the game, rendering the field a mess.
Players couldn't even make simple passes without slipping:
This picture shows just how much water was on the pitch:
This is what "Challenge Mode" looks like on a soccer pitch. So while Garcia's miss is a terrible miss (and she will get some of the blame), the miserable pitch conditions might actually be worse.