FC Buffalo is disappointed to acknowledge that it has been unable to fulfill a late rescheduling request from Cleveland Force, and that Cleveland have subsequently been awarded three points.
Originally scheduled for May 28, our club was asked to move the game and agreed to travel to Cleveland on Thursday, June 26, on what was the only mutually-open and acceptable date on both teams schedules. At that date, the club rejected Friday, June 27 as an option due to Sunday’s 1:30pm kickoff vs Steel City and associated concerns about player recovery.
Earlier this month, Cleveland discovered that their field was unavailable and requested a second reschedule. Despite diligent work and creative problem-solving ideas from the USL W League leadership, Cleveland was only able to secure a field on one potential date — Friday, June 27.
Given no alternative and despite our club’s best efforts and deep roster, the short notice also proved too large an obstacle to free up enough players’ schedules to field 11 people, let alone 18, for a top-end USL W League match in Ohio.
FC Buffalo is committed to competing for championships and fostering a top environment for the deep, elite talent in Western New York. We are confident that we went out of our way to be a good partner and have zero doubts that we explored every avenue — even those that would put our team at a competitive disadvantage — to fulfill the second rescheduling of this fixture.
We apologize to our supporters. We had hoped alongside you that Friday’s match between Steel City and Pittsburgh Riveters would yield a result that would make Sunday’s home game with Steel City our chance to secure another trophy. We vow to produce a top home finale on Sunday afternoon at Coyer Field against Steel City and we hope that you tell everyone you know to come out to Coyer Field on Saturday and support our women in their final match of what’s been an exceptional summer of soccer at FC Buffalo.
