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The U.S. women's national team was on track to play a pair of friendlies with Japan next week. Now, eight days ahead of a scheduled game at Frisco, Texas, Japan has withdrawn from the matches citing fears of the H1N1 virus. Japan will not play in Sandy, Utah, on May 23 and also canceled a May 25 match against Canada in Toronto. The U.S. Soccer Federation announced the news Tuesday afternoon. President Sunil Gulati issued the following statement -- ""This is an unfortunate situation, but one that we had absolutely no control over. We have been assured that the risk to the participating teams is exceptionally low, but we accept the Japanese Federation's decision not to travel."
Tuesday's news is especially unfortunate for striker Abby Wambach, who was attempting to go for her 100th career international goal. The U.S. women won't play again until a pair of matches with Canada in mid-July.
This news comes on the heels of the Mexican Federation withdrawing its clubs from participating in CONMEBOL activities because teams from Brazil and Uruguay didn't want to come to Mexico to play Chivas and San Luis in the Copa Libertadores matches last week citing fears of the H1N1 virus. Mexican league matches have slowly begun allowing spectators back to its stadia after playing behind closed doors for a couple weeks.
The interesting question posed by Japan's withdrawal of its women's team is if somehow the CONCACAF Gold Cup could possibly be affected. Mexico is slated to play games in Oakland, Houston and Glendale, Ariz., in the Group Stage.
The tournament doesn't begin until early July, so it's quite possible by then the words 'Swine Flu' will be a distant memory from the vernacular.
Still, it bears monitoring as we get closer to summer.
