Published on 6/20/2026
As soon as Switzerland and Bosnia left the field after their World Cup match on Thursday, another team entered the field.
But instead of tearing up the grass with spiked boots, this team was mowing, raking, seeding and repairing the grass.
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After the ground had been exposed for two hours to the pressure of some of the best and most brutal players in the world on grass, it needed a degree of care and attention, which is necessary in this version of the World Cup, which is often held on grass fields placed on top of a substratum usually used to support artificial turf… and things did not always go well .
After France’s 3-1 victory over Senegal on Tuesday, coach Didier Deschamps said that his team had to change its shoes to suit the floor of the New York-New Jersey stadium, which was not in ideal condition.
“Let’s just say it’s… different. Unusual, so you have to adapt to it. And it’s different, so the bounce of the ball is different too,” Deschamps said. He added that none of his players used shoes with spikes, “although modern shoes have become more adaptable.”
France midfielder Adrien Rabiot said: “The pitch… I don’t even know if it can be called a grass pitch. It looked like an artificial pitch, pretty solid and frozen.”
Commentators, journalists and television viewers also expressed concern about the condition of that stadium, which is the most important among the stadiums because it will host the final match on July 19.
To some, parts of the ground appeared discolored, while the grass in front of the goal appeared somewhat worn out.
However, Vancouver Stadium received great praise from the players, dispelling the concerns of those responsible for its maintenance, the farmer who planted and supplied the turf, as well as the local community, which is proud to host the World Cup and wants to impress the world.
Australian Aiden O’Neill praised the stadium after his team’s 2-0 victory over Türkiye on Saturday.
The Globe and Mail newspaper quoted him as saying: “I think they did a great job getting the pitch to this condition. The ball moved well, and the pitch wasn’t too hard. Frankly, I think they got it to the perfect condition.”
Across North America, stadiums are subjected to severe tests, but each stadium has unique characteristics, far more than is typical of other World Cup tournaments.
Because stadiums are located in very different environments, from high-altitude Mexico City to coastal New Jersey, and from semi-desert Los Angeles to humid Toronto, the types of grass used vary from one stadium to another, and each stadium has special requirements in the installation process.
Some stadiums are exposed to sunlight and others are not, and some are exposed to rain while others are not exposed to it at all. Players play matches in a wide range of conditions, as do pitches.
Strange playgrounds
Mike Hahn, a researcher in movement mechanics and injury in football and associate director of the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, which is helping to develop shoes for the 2027 Women’s World Cup, said he understands why players might be bothered by World Cup surfaces that feel a bit strange when running on them.
“The players have a very precise sense of what the field should look like,” Han, who monitors the courts as much as he watches the players during the current tournament, told Reuters.
“If there is a slight difference in the firmness of the grass over the standard underlayment, they can feel that small differenceenough to make their legs stiffer if the ground is too soft, or they feel it is too firm and have to relax their muscles,” he said.
Han praised the International Federation of Football (FIFA) for having clear standards and a strict program for testing and developing stadium floors, which allows their performance to be accurately analyzed.
The use of hybrid stadiums in this tournament, which are stadiums in which natural grass grows through a supportive artificial layer that gives it additional strength and durability, makes the World Cup a huge field test for the latest engineering methods.
Despite the criticism directed at the New Jersey stadium, FIFA said in statements to Reuters: “The FIFA Turf Management Team believes that all stadiums are of good efficiency and perform as expected for high-level competitions. Differences in appearance that may be seen on television or with the naked eye do not necessarily reflect the efficiency or playability of the field.”
Han said he is monitoring whether any of the hybrid courts will rupture under the enormous pressure resulting from players moving at full speed and suddenly changing direction.
At Los Angeles Stadium, the turf care team was doing everything they could to ensure that didn’t happen.
One of the workers was driving what looked like a grass-cutting machine, but instead of mowing the grass, he was planting new seeds on the field, covering every centimeter of the green rectangle.
As for the spots that appeared to be discolored or worn, those in charge of maintenance treated them individually, noting a prominent spot that had been treated with what appeared to be some type of fertilizer.
The tournament is still in its early stages, and the courts still need to last for several more weeks, so the struggle between players’ shoe spikes, turf efficiency, hybrid court geometry and environmental factors is only just beginning.
