The Times reached out to the CIF Southern Section, which governs high school sports in most of Southern California, with questions about Valley Christian Academy’s practice of forfeiting football games rather than take the field against teams with female players.

Filled with novelty, nerves and naivety, these young American team take the field against Wales on Monday night in a match a growing fanbase back home has been pining for since 2014.

"When we take the field against France or New Zealand - if you have a bad day and they have a good day, you're going to get beat," he said.

On Saturday, the Mets will take the field against the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field in what promises to be an exciting matchup between two top National League baseball teams.

One should always take the field against one team in this tourney given how much parity there is, but that won’t be of much comfort to the dejected Bulldogs fans right now.