HERRIMAN – The 22 starting players for the North Carolina Courage and Portland Thorns, along with alternates from both teams, knelt during the national anthem ahead of Saturday’s opening game of the NWSL Challenge Cup.
North Carolina beat Portland Thorns 2-1 in a game in which all the players wore ‘Black Lives Matter’ shirts over their uniform shirt during the anthem and Black Lives Matter bracelets during the National Women’s game. Soccer League’s Challenge Cup.
The game in Herriman, Utah, marked the return of professional sports leagues in the United States, on hiatus since March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The players from the two teams issued a joint statement shortly before the kickoff.
“We kneel today to protest racial injustice, police brutality, and systemic racism against African Americans and people of color in the United States,” they say.
“We love our country and have taken this opportunity to keep it at a high level. It is our duty to demand that the freedoms on which this nation was founded extend to all.”
The starters and reserves also knelt briefly a second time immediately prior to the kickoff.
Most European professional soccer leagues have adopted that gesture in recent weeks in response to protests following the death of the African American. George Floyd, who died after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on his neck for nearly eight minutes in Minneapolis.
There were no fans, but the anthem was played live on the field
– .
