The U.S. is the biggest women’s soccer market and FIFA officials catered their Women’s World Cup schedule for audiences in North America.
With the competition taking place between Australia and New Zealand, games were scheduled to accommodate U.S. viewers tuning in to Fox Sports and Telemundo. Two games for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team were scheduled at 1 p.m. in New Zealand, which is 9 p.m. ET in the U.S., right during primetime.
The U.S. is part of Group E and the winner of the group would play a game at noon in Sydney. Their thought process was that the USWNT would have no problem landing the top spot and would work out perfectly.
However, the U.S. ended up placing second in the group stage with the Netherlands taking the top spot. Now it’s the Netherlands team that will go to Sydney and play a game that will start at 10 p.m. ET in the U.S. and at 4 a.m. in Amsterdam.
Meanwhile, the USWNT will travel to Melbourne for a game that is scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. local time and 5 a.m. ET.
The scheduling plan backfired and now soccer aficionados from the U.S. and the Netherlands will have to set up their alarm clock for the wee hours of the morning alongside a big coffee pot to cheer on their respective teams in the Round of 16 stage.
Content Source: deadline.com