World Cup Pitch Concerns: Rabiot's Blunt Verdict

Adrien Rabiot left New Jersey with three points, an assist and a warning.

France opened their World Cup campaign with a 3-1 win over Senegal at the New York New Jersey Stadium on Tuesday, but the Juventus midfielder’s verdict on the surface at MetLife was as blunt as his tackling.

“The pitch... I don't even know if you can call it that. It felt more like an artificial surface - quite hard and quite rigid,” the 31-year-old said after playing the full match and setting up Bradley Barcola for Les Bleus’ second goal.

For a venue about to host the World Cup final on 19 July, and England’s last group game against Panama on 27 June, that is not the soundtrack organisers wanted to hear.

World Cup on a “hard and rigid” stage

MetLife, home of the New York Giants and New York Jets, is used to collisions, not combinations. Its artificial turf has long carried a grim reputation in the NFL, where serious injuries have piled up often enough for players to talk about a “MetLife curse”. Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers’ torn anterior cruciate ligament there in September was only the latest grim entry on that list.

For the World Cup, the stadium’s synthetic surface has been covered with a temporary grass pitch. On paper, that sounds like a solution. On the evidence of the opening fixtures, it has created a new problem.

Rabiot is not alone. Brazil forward Vinicius Junior complained about the conditions after his side’s 1-1 draw with Morocco in their opening game, pointing to how quickly the surface dries.

“In the second half, with the heat, the pitch dries out very quickly. The game becomes very sluggish and we can't get into our rhythm,” he said.

That rhythm is everything for teams who rely on speed of pass and sharp changes of direction. A surface that behaves “more like an artificial” one, as Rabiot put it, strips away some of that fluency and, in the back of every player’s mind, raises the spectre of injury.

A global showpiece, temporary grass

MetLife is not alone in its makeover. Eight temporary grass pitches have been laid across 16 World Cup host venues, an enormous logistical operation designed to turn multi-use American arenas into football stages.

Boston Stadium, where Scotland opened their campaign with a 1-0 win over Haiti last week, is another of the converted grounds. Steve Clarke’s side return there for their second Group C match against Morocco on Friday (23:00 BST), and will be paying close attention to how the turf behaves over a second high-intensity fixture.

In New Jersey, the schedule is already tight. After France’s win over Senegal, the next game at the venue sees Senegal return to face Norway on 22 June. Then comes England’s meeting with Panama, followed by the biggest match of all: the World Cup final.

By then, the world’s eyes will be fixed on this patch of imported grass laid over a much-maligned artificial base. Players have already delivered their verdict on how it feels. The question now is whether the pitch can hold up – and whether a World Cup trophy should really be decided on a surface so many of its stars already distrust.