Teams sound off on MetLife Stadium grass for FIFA Club World Cup

For the second consecutive game, the conversation turned to the pitch at MetLife Stadium, where Dortmund head coach Niko Kovac said that the “ball wasn’t traveling so fast“ following the club’s 0-0 draw with Brazilian side Fluminense on Tuesday in the group stage of the FIFA Club World Cup. 

On Sunday, Palmeiras’ Estêvão expressed concerns about the field, and though Kovac didn’t seem concerned, he made some similar points on Tuesday afternoon. 

“It’s a different grass than in Europe. My feeling was the pitch was a little bit soft and it was a little bit, not dry, but I would say that the ball wasn’t traveling so fast as we are used to,” he said. “This is a little bit of what my impression is, what my feeling is. But, everybody has to work in the same conditions and we don’t search for any excuses.” 

MetLife Stadium traditionally has artificial turf during the NFL season, but real grass was installed for the Club World Cup, and will be placed down for next year’s World Cup.

The weather in the New York/New Jersey area has fluctuated over the past week with temperatures dropping and spiking, possibly contributing to the uneven field conditions. 

“It’s just a totally different football pitch than what we played the whole year. It’s nothing compared to the grass we play on,” Dortmund’s Pascal Groß said after the match. “But I’m not a fan of excuses, so that doesn’t matter for me. … We need to adjust quick. We need to be able to play on different pitches.” 

The Brazilian club got the better of Dortmund, even if they couldn’t put the ball into the back of the net, marking the second consecutive Club World Cup match at the home of the Giants and Jets that ended in a draw. 

Fluminense attempted more shots than Dortmund (14-8), and had more shots on target during the 90-minute affair, forcing Dortmund keeper Gregor Kobel to make a handful of big stops during the match to keep it scoreless. 

FIFA announced the attendance was 34,736, and the fans in the stands did their best to bring the Meadowlands alive amid the muggy and dreary afternoon contest. Still, the crowd likely was smaller than event organizers hoped. 

Kovac called the atmosphere “OK” and said that the struggle to draw fans early on stemmed from it being different from a World Cup or international tournament, where the national teams are playing, and “then the whole country is coming into the stadium and supporting.” 

“It was 12 o’clock. I can imagine that there will be more people also watching the game without supporting one team if the time would be different,” he said. “We need to play four games per day, so it’s not so easy to schedule the games. But for me, it was OK.”