As soon as Switzerland and Bosnia left the field after their World Cup match on Thursday, there was another team on the field.
But instead of tearing up the grass with studs, this team was mowing, brushing, seeding and repairing it.
After being battered for two hours by some of the world’s best and most physically violent (grass) players, the surface received some loving care – a necessity during this World Cup, which is often played on grass pitches laid on a surface that normally supports artificial grass.
It didn’t all go well.
French coach Didier Deschamps said after his side’s 3-1 win over Senegal on Tuesday that his players had to adapt their boots for the New York-New Jersey pitch, which wasn’t great.
«Let’s just say it’s… it’s different. It’s unusual, so you have to get used to it,» Deschamps said. “It’s different, so the bounce is different too.” None of his players used screw-in studs “even though the boots are a bit more flexible these days.”
France midfielder Adrien Rabiot added: «The pitch… I don’t even know if you can call it that. It felt more like an artificial surface – quite hard and quite stiff.»
Commentators, reporters and TV viewers are also concerned about the condition of that field, the main stadium because it will host the final on July 19.
To some, the spots appear discolored, while the area in front of the target is a bit ragged.
However, the Vancouver stadium has received some positive reviews from players, easing the concerns of the groundskeepers, the farmer who grew and supplied the turf, and the local community, which is proud to host the World Cup and wants to make an impression on the world.
Australian player Aiden O’Neill praised it after his side’s 2-0 win over Turkey on Saturday.
“I think they’ve done such a good job getting it to the condition it’s in,” he told the Globe and Mail newspaper. «The ball was moving well. It wasn’t that difficult. To be honest, I think they got it perfect.»
Fields are put to the test across North America, but each field is unique, much more so than at other World Cups.
Because the stadiums are located in very different environments, from high-altitude Mexico City to sea level New Jersey, and from desert-like LA to humid Toronto, the fields consist of different types of grass and each stadium has specific installation requirements.
Some get sunlight and some don’t. Some get rain, some never. The players operate in a wide range of conditions and that also applies to the fields.
WORLD CUP PLACES FEEL WEIRD UNDER FOOT
Soccer biomechanics and injury prevention researcher Mike Hahn, deputy director of the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, which is helping develop the boots for the 2027 Women’s World Cup, said he understood why players might be startled by World Cup pitches that feel a little strange underfoot.
“They have such a precise sense of what it should be,” Hahn, who watches the fields as much as he watches the players in this year’s tournament, told Reuters.
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“If there is a small difference in the compressive stiffness of the grass on top of the standard underlayment, they may feel that small difference so small that their legs have to stiffen because it is too flexible, or they find it too stiff so they have to loosen their legs.”
Hahn credits football’s world governing body, FIFA, with having well-defined standards and a rigorous testing program for turf development, which allows analysis of pitch performance.
The use of hybrid pitches for this World Cup, where grass grows through an underlying supportive synthetic layer that gives it extra strength and durability, makes the tournament a giant on-field test of advanced approaches.
Despite the criticism on the pitch in New Jersey, FIFA told Reuters that the situation is better than it seems. The fields “remain in excellent condition, both from a playability and player safety perspective,” it said in a statement.
«The assessment of FIFA’s turf management team is that each pitch is healthy and performing as intended for elite competition. Variations in the appearance of some surfaces, whether on television or in person, do not necessarily reflect the quality, health or playability of the pitch.»
Hahn said he watched to see if one of the hybrid fields cracked under the intense pressure of players spinning at maximum speed.
“You’re going full speed and making the sharpest cut possible, and all of a sudden it fails,” Hahn said. “It works fine until it doesn’t work anymore.”
On the field in Los Angeles, the turf team did what they could to make sure their field didn’t fail.
One man was running something that looked like a lawn mower, but instead of cutting grass, new grass seed was placed on the living field, covering every inch of the field.
Spots that looked discolored or ragged were individually tended by the field rangers, with one particularly noticeable spot treated with what appeared to be fertilizer.
It’s still early in the tournament and the pitches still have weeks to go, so the battle between the players’ studs, the health of the grass, hybrid pitch technology and the environment has only just begun.
Published on June 20, 2026
