Courtesy
The friendly match between Barcelona and Real Madrid, which is being played tonight in the New York metropolitan area, was stopped in the 11th minute when the score was 0-0 due to a storm in the area.
MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, located about 13 kilometres northwest of Times Square, is the venue for this duel between the Merengues and the Culés.
The pre-match weather was also stormy and at times rainy, which dampened the food and music festival that usually takes place in the area around and in the hours before such games in the US.
But despite the rain in the run-up to the match, the derby started normally at 7:00 p.m. (23:00 GMT) before being suspended after just 11 minutes of play and waiting for the weather to improve.
The players and coaching staff of both teams left the field.
“The match has been suspended due to inclement weather. The players have returned to the changing rooms,” Barcelona wrote on their X account.
“Due to weather conditions, the match has been suspended until further notice,” Madrid said on the same social network.
Sources from the party’s organisation explained to EFE that the match was suspended due to a lightning strike in the area.
The same sources pointed out that the protocol requires stopping the game for at least 30 minutes before seeing if the weather permits resuming the match later.
If another lightning strike occurs, the clock resets to zero and a new 30-minute count begins.
Rain began to fall shortly after the match was suspended with no warning of when it might resume.
After 7:30 p.m., the storm intensified and heavy rain began to fall, even flooding parts of the already empty stands at MetLife Stadium.
New Jersey authorities, who like those in New York had already issued warnings throughout the day about possible severe storms, sent a “public safety alert” message to those present at the stadium.
“From the New Jersey State Police, for your safety please leave the uncovered seating and field area and seek shelter inside the facility,” the message said.
“For your safety, everyone must remain inside the stadium. We will provide additional information as it becomes available,” read the screens inside MetLife Stadium.
Barcelona already suffered a similar inconvenience last Tuesday in its friendly against Manchester City, which started more than an hour late in Orlando (Florida, USA) also due to an electrical storm in the area. EFE
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2024-08-04 07:52:06
