Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant -- We Got U.S. Women's Backs ... In FIFA World Cup Turf War

Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant blasted FIFA over its plan to play the women's World Cup matches on artificial turf -- and they did it with a gory illustration of how turf tore up U.S. star Sydney Leroux's legs.

We'll warn you ... the pic is kinda graphic, showing several open gashes and massive bruises on Sydney's shins and knees.

Kobe punctuated his twitpic of Sydney's injuries with "#ProtectTheAthlete."

In his Facebook post, KD said, "C'mon now FIFA u can't have our women playing on turf. @sydneyleroux I got ya back."

As we told you ...FIFA wants to play all of the 2015 Women's World Cup matches on artificial turf as "a test." A group of players has filed an official protest , and having big guns like KD and Kobe on board can't hurt the cause.