Confirmed: 2015 World Cup to be played on artificial surface

How many tournament championships and Olympic Gold medals does Wambach have?
How many does Tancredi have?

How many FIFA player of the year awards does Wambach have?
What about Tancredi?

 

Trying to decide if is an improvement over "what's her face"...

If you can't spell, just call her World Player of the Year.

 

Strange how Sinclair wasn't even nominated. Well Wambach can cry all she wants this time, she won't be getting her way

 

As a fan, I'm disappointed that the World Cup will be played on artificial surfaces. It changes the game.
I give Abby props for speaking up, and she is not alone. Many players from other nations have voiced their concern as well.
Yes, there is the disconcerting fact that many of the surfaces in the new NWSL are artificial. This is unfortunate; I place it in the "beggars can't be choosers" category. The new league made concessions on stadia to keep costs down in an effort to survive. Hopefully, in a few years when the league is successful, they can move to grass pitches.

 

Portland probably has the best stadium setup, but is artificial for the MLS as well. Jeld-Wen was a disaster when it was grass. Not enough sun in the fall, and college and HS Football teams in the city also use it. It is very high use facility. Unless the Timber build a bigger stadium, (ten years at least) JWF is where they will play. The USA played Canada there, so they know how to play on it.

Seattle would graduate to what? Century link is worse Turf than Starfire. The Starfire is (or was) two star. Century Link isn't. The Turf there is for pointy ball.

I'm not so sure the options are better in other cities.

Best thing is to hope Turf keeps getting better.

 

CenturyLink has been 2 Star since the new surface was put in last year, although it is up for review on 2013-05-01, so it will be interesting to see if it maintains it's rating. But I would wager it's in better shape than Starfire since it's newer.

 

I played Jr High in the Superdome, when guys were blowing knees out on that Astro Turf in Houston. Wombat is out of her mind, if she thinks a sponsor will put up the money for grass for a couple of weeks. The turf has improved.

 

Ok, but fields lose their two star performance very quickly unless maintained, and nobody seems to do that. They just wait for recert.

At any rate, my main point is there isn't a good stadium that is grass in Seattle. UW keeps promising a new expanded stadium ( last time when they got a new Men's coach).

That hasn't happened either.

 

AstroTurf was carpet over asphalt. You might as well be talking linoleum.

I played Lacrosse on one of the first AstroTurf fields ever at Hoftstra. Worst experience of my life, and I've been in a motorcycle accident wearing shorts.

The new Turfs are totally different.

 

She actually has precedent there. In the 2003 WWC, Jeld-Wen ( then PGE Park) was overlaid with sod for the one weekend of football of the semis ( you remember, the USA lost to Germany).

I do recall comments about tripping on seams, so "Instagrass" isn't the best either.

 

Hopefully they learned from their mistake last time and properly maintain it this time. I don't think replacing the FieldTurf every 4 years with 2 of those years being being terrible for soccer is worth the over $500,000 cost for the install.

And yes, you are correct about the lack of a decent natural grass stadium for the Reign to play on.

 

Next time you are at century link, look around the bowels of the stadium and see if you even see any of the equipment listed here:
http://www.fieldturf.com/media/BAhb...mBjoGRVQ/FT_Maintenance Guidelines_041510.pdf

The alternative is a maintenance service, but that seems to be the first item that gets deferred.

 

Sinclair addressed the Turf topic in the following podcast (approx 30 minutes in):
http://www.mlssoccer.com/extratime

She disagrees with Abby and is standing by CSA on the issue.

 

Are you surprised? I find Sinclair to be very genuine, so that could really be her feelings on the issue. But did you expect her to go against her FA? Especially when that FA is making it's most significant financial contribution to the women's team in years?

 

Well, shouldn't they start with petitioning the NWSL to move over to grass pitches given that majority of the league's stadiums are turf?

 

Yeah, that was ugly. I guess it wasn't two star Turf, which doesn't do that. That's what I looked like after a game on original AstrotTurf 45 years ago.

 

I meant specifically the CONCACAF women's qualifying, which was held at BC Place in Vancouver, Canada. With them letting that be on artificial turf (even if was the best artificial turf available in Canada at the time), I don't think it's surprising that they approved having the WWC on it. Now I'm not saying that I think it's a good or bad idea, just that it's not surprising.

 

And yet the only Women's team that is trying to make a stink and get it changed is the good old USA. We are supposedly a non football nation who don't care about tradition or the game. Where is all of the complaining by Les Blues players or the FFF. None of the euro Federations or players are pushing for grass. The only one that has said anything is Seger.

 

I'm sure you believe this, but two things don't make sense.

First off, the u20 is a real age group event that is held every two years. Because France doesn't Win any of them doesn't make them fake.

Europe has more FiFa two star venues than the rest of the world put together.
FIFA lists 15 FIFA two star pitches in CONCACAF, and 329 FIFA two star pitches in EUFA.

Somebody must be playing on them, or we have just found the real reason for Europe's economic crisis.

Find them and practice on them before the next Cup.

 

I'm actually looking forward to the WWC on turf.
We'll actually see a lot of players diving and faking injuries, because they got taken down on hard turf. It'll add to the drama. Just for one WWC, it would be exciting.
We don't want that to be the essence of the women's game going forward after 2015, but for one WWC, sure, why not.