USWNT forward Trinity Rodman saying afterward<\/a> the \u201cair quality was rough\u201d. Hydration breaks took place every 15 minutes.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2286307180-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Gotham won 1-0 in a game disrupted by the conditions (Caean Couto\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
By meteorologist Aaron Mentkowski<\/p>\n
An Air Quality Alert was in effect through Thursday. This means that fine particulates within the region may approach or exceed unhealthy standards. Wildfire smoke from Canada spreading southward toward New York City will create hazy sunshine and elevated pollutant levels in the area.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the wildfire smoke will still be in the area, but computer models are suggesting the smoke will not be as thick. Hazy skies are expected on Friday with a high temperature near 90F (32C).<\/p>\n
Rain returns on Saturday. Showers and thundershowers are likely, with the best chance for rain late Saturday afternoon through Saturday evening. It will be cooler on Saturday with a high of 84F (29C).<\/p>\n
Rain should help clear the smoke, though it can be difficult to predict how effective it will be.<\/p>\n
The rain showers will linger into early Sunday morning. The rain will be tapering off and skies will be clearing in the afternoon. For the 3pm ET start of the match, the temperature will be near 85F (29C).<\/p>\n
What impact could poor air quality have on performance?<\/p>\n
Consultant respiratory physician Professor Hull, who recently worked with the squad of newly-promoted Premier League club Hull City, told The Athletic\u00a0that athletes playing in conditions of poor air quality \u201coften report performance impairment because of the sensations they\u2019re getting\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe particulates in the air cause irritative effects,\u201d Hull said. \u201cThey often feel their throat is irritated, they\u2019re having to clear their throat. There\u2019s the sensations of feeling suffocated, coughing a lot, because the airways are getting irritated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s as important as the other far more detailed physiological things people are affected by, like asthma, or the concerns about cardiovascular effects of inhaling particulate matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can irritate the eyes as well. Players are distracted because the other sensations take them off focusing on the sharpness and need for focus on the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hull added that particulates in the air can cause broncho-constriction, the narrowing of the airways, which he said \u201ccauses the feeling of breathlessness and chest tightness, which leads people to back off in terms of their performance\u201d. The inhaling of particulates can also affect cardiovascular health.<\/p>\n
![\"Marc](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285737154-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Spain trained in New Jersey on Thursday (Mauro Pimentel \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Hull said the effect of poor air quality on athletes is \u201cvery variable\u201d, and that those with backgrounds of asthma and other airway diseases are most susceptible. \u201cBetween 15 and 20 per cent of a typical football team have asthma,\u201d Hull said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a small number of players that have a background of airways problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no verified, publicly available information detailing players in the Spain or Argentina squads with historical airway problems.<\/p>\n
World Cup finalists Spain trained in New Jersey for the first time on Thursday. The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) said the team flew in to Newark Airport on Wednesday evening, before training at the New York Red Bulls\u2019 Melanie Lane training grounds in Whippany.<\/p>\n
Argentina, meanwhile, trained at Atlanta United\u2019s training ground in Marietta, Georgia on Thursday morning, before travelling to New York that afternoon.<\/p>\n
Hull said training in outside areas with poor air quality should be avoided and that it is not comparable to other types of adaptive training like altitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t generally acclimatise to it,\u201d Hull said. \u201cIf anything, training or being exposed to a highly polluted area is more likely to establish irritative effects already.\u201d<\/p>\n
In positive news for fans of Argentina captain Lionel Messi, Hull said there is not \u201crobust evidence\u201d to suggest the 39-year-old would be more susceptible to faltering in poor air quality compared to his younger counterparts \u2014 19-year-old Lamine Yamal, for example \u2014 if basing the comparison solely upon age.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Playing conditions \u2014 whether it be heat, altitude or pitch quality \u2014 have been a big talking point…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14414,32772,33264,9,11,10,400,2208],"class_list":["post-298971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-argentina","tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","tag-international-football","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-soccer","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}