FC Dallas defender Reggie Cannon has hit out at the "disgusting" boos that could be heard as his team were joined by Nashville in taking a knee during the United States national anthem on Wednesday.
Despite the global pandemic, Major League Soccer has allowed some teams to permit a limited amount of fans into their stadiums, with around 3,000 supporters gathering at the Toyota Stadium for the clash.
A portion of those fans turned on the players, however, vocalising their frustration at perceived disrespect for their country as the players knelt in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
"How disgraceful is that?" Cannon said, as per the BBC. "You got fans booing you for people taking a stand for what they believe in.
"Millions of other people support this cause and we discussed with every other team and the league what we're going to do and we've got fans booing us in our own stadium. I think it was absolutely disgusting."
The match, which ended 1-0 to Nashville, was the first major sporting event to have fans present since MLS was suspended in March due to the coronavirus, with widespread protests having taken place in the US during the months of downtime.
Following the death of George Floyd, the protests have brought the subject of racial inequality to the fore and Cannon has been left hurt by the fans' ignorance.
The USMNT man added: "I'm sorry for our fans because we had someone chanting 'USA' when they don't understand what kneeling means. They don't understand why we're kneeling - they can't see the reason, they just think we're the ignorant ones and it's incredibly frustrating.
"When we decided to kneel I knew it was going to happen. That should tell you something. I knew we were going to have some negative pushback from having a unified response over what's going on. That's a problem.
"It hurts me because I love our fans. I love this club and I want to see the support that the league has given us - that everyone has given us - from our fans. As soon as I heard that boo I tried to play on and I knew what to expect.
"We'll take it one day at a time and again we're unified in this response and everyone stands together."
