Minnesota's professional women's soccer team is inching closer to the national championship, but the players are not happy about where they're being forced to play.
Minnesota Aurora FC got a last-second goal Sunday night to beat Pittsburgh Riveters and won the Central Conference for the second straight year.
Now, the Aurora advance to the seminfinals after two postseason wins, both played in Pittsburgh. But the joy is somewhat overshadowed by the USL W League decision to not have the semifinals at TCO stadium in Minnesota.
"We are the number one seed, we have been undefeated, we haven't lost a single game this year. And as the number one seed in every other sports league, you get to host. That is not what's happening in our league," says frustrated Aurora board member Andrea Yoch.
Instead, the Aurora will travel all the way to Seattle to play Salmon Bay FC.
Yoch says the league decision disregards player safety and well-being, forcing our team into a cross-country trip from the East Coast to the West Coast, crossing three time zones in barely over 72 hours, providing minimal recovery time and significantly increasing risk of injury.
She says they bid to have the semifinals in Minnesota but were denied.
"It is very, very frustrating because it is not safe for players to travel coast to coast," Yoch says. "Even if you look at the World Cup, everything is geographically aligned, so teams are staying on one side of the country or the other. They're not flying more than a few hours. It's not healthy for anybody and it's especially not healthy for high performing athletes."
Yoch says to make matters worse, the League has scheduled the game for 9:30 p.m. local time, which could limit the number of fans watching.
