The complaints about the MetLife Stadium field are unrelenting.
German soccer club Borussia Dortmund was recently knocked out by Real Madrid in the quarterfinals of the FIFA Club World Cup, held on Saturday.
“It’s more like a golf green; you could putt here,” remarked manager Niko Kovač following their narrow 3-2 defeat. “The grass is quite short, unlike the surfaces we play on in the Bundesliga and in the other stadiums.”
Typically, MetLife Stadium features an artificial turf for Giants and Jets matches, but for FIFA’s requirements, they switched to natural grass for these games.
Kovač preferred the grass fields at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati and Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
“As you saw, the watering wasn’t good enough, I would say, because you don’t have the devices for that,” Kovač said of the MetLife Stadium grass. “When it’s too dry, it’s unbelievable. It’s sticking.”
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NFL players have long complained about the turf fields at MetLife Stadium, and the NFL Players Association last month took notice of the decision to install grass for the Club World Cup, but not for NFL games.
Despite the willingness to install a grass field for other sports, Giants owner John Mara has maintained that it would not be sustainable for football, given two teams play at the stadium, the weather and the large number of other events there.
“I want to get to the point where the experts can tell us that late in the season we can have a safe, playable grass field, and when we get to that point, then maybe we’ll make the switch,” Mara said at last year’s NFL owners meetings. “We’re not there yet.
“With the amount of events in our building, particularly during the football season, having two teams there, and how many times last year we had back-to-back games where it rained during the first game, I can’t imagine what a grass field would’ve looked like on a second day.”
