Soccer in subzero temps is silly and unnecessary but fans made most of it

Subzero windchill readings that hit the Twin Cities like a punch to the throat Wednesday were suitable to only a few species. Polar bears. Santa Claus. Bud Grant.

An ideal place for an outdoor soccer game? Puh-lease. What, was Antarctica already booked?

The folks at U.S. Soccer thought differently. Someone with that organization actually came up with the bright idea to host a World Cup qualifying match in Minnesota in early February.

Yep, you betcha.

Apparently, they feared losing to Honduras and wanted to make the visitors uncomfortable, a weird theory that raises a couple of obvious rebuttal questions:

Is the U.S. team stocked with players who do polar plunges whenever they bathe? Nobody likes to play sports outside when it's that cold, regardless of where they call home.

Also, did USMNT really need bone-chilling weather to defeat Honduras? If so, the national program should re-evaluate things.

Afterward, Honduras officials said that goalkeeper Luis Lopez had to leave the game and was being treated for hypothermia.

U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter defended the decision to pick Minnesota as the destination.

"When we scheduled this game in this location, you have to go by daily average temperatures," he said. "A cold spell came through. It's something you can't control."

Actually, you can. Don't schedule the game in Minnesota in the dead of winter.

Rookie mistake by soccer officials who counted on best-case February weather and didn't give enough consideration to what Minnesotans know too well — that a hunker-down deep freeze is possible anytime.

It's hard to know if the cold weather had much effect on the Hondurans, or whether they were simply overmatched in skill. The competition wasn't close.

Honduras is winless in 11 qualifying matches and already eliminated from World Cup contention. The U.S. team didn't need a gimmicky home-field advantage tactic to have the upper hand.

A hearty salute goes to the soccer diehards who braved the cold in what was still a showcase event for the Twin Cities to host, even if the strategy behind it made zero sense.

Fans made the most of it. Not every seat was occupied, but the atmosphere was typical of a soccer match at Allianz Field. Festive. Loud. Full of emotion.

Fans bundled up and came rowdy. They enjoyed the show.

"This is fantastic," Chip Nordstrom said.

Fantastic? In this weather?

"You don't love America?" friend Michael Pawlyszyn said, chuckling.

Nordstrom: "No one is wearing a soccer jersey but there's a million hockey jerseys."

Pawlyszyn: "I've seen Eruzione's jersey everywhere."

"I was talking to people from work all over the country today," Nordstrom said. "They were like, 'You're actually going to a soccer game and it's not inside?' "

He received texts once at the stadium from co-workers who had legitimate concerns.

"How are your drinks not freezing?" one wrote.

"Oh, they are," Nordstrom said. "They're slushies."

A night so cold that drinks turn into slushies, eyelashes form icicles and Eruzione jerseys fit perfectly inside a soccer stadium.