Tonight’s Gold Cup Group C action is taking place at Ford Field in Detroit, MI, a domed stadium that normally has artificial turf. For tonight’s matches though, they have laid down grass over the turf to provide a surface that is much more conducive to soccer than turf, which is often derided by players no matter how “good” or new it may be. The problem is, temporary grass isn’t a very good surface either.
USA Vs. Canada, Gold Cup 2011: The Dreaded Temporary Grass
While an improvement on artificial turf, temporary grass does not have too much in common with natural grass. It is full of seams since it hasn’t been down long enough to grow together and it is often bumpy because it doesn’t have time to settle. The early play in the first match of the Group C doubleheader between Panama and Guadeloupe has already shown some of the issues with the temporary grass as it plays very slow and the ball is not rolling smoothly.
Temporary grass may be an improvement on turf, but there are enough stadiums in the U.S. with natural grass to play on. The U.S. team won’t play on temporary grass during World Cup qualifiers, but CONCACAF will play on it. I guess it is not a surprise consider they are playing other matches in the tournament on turf. This is CONCACAF’s championship tournament, right? Anything for a buck with good ol’ CONCACAF.
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