{"id":48049,"date":"2025-07-08T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T07:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/48049\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T07:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T07:00:10","slug":"borussia-dortmund-manager-niko-kovac-rails-against-metlife-stadium-grass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/48049\/","title":{"rendered":"Borussia Dortmund manager Niko Kovac rails against MetLife Stadium grass"},"content":{"rendered":"

The complaints about the MetLife Stadium field are unrelenting. <\/p>\n

The latest came from German soccer club Borussia Dortmund after the team was eliminated by Real Madrid in the FIFA Club World Cup quarterfinals<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0more a golf green, so you can putt here,\u201d manager Niko Kova\u010d said after his side\u2019s 3-2 loss. \u201cIt\u2019s very short. But this is not the grass we are used to playing on in the Bundesliga and also in the other two stadiums.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NikoNiko Kova\u010d looks on during the Borussia Dortmund-Real Madrid match on July 5, 2025. FIFA via Getty Images<\/p>\n

MetLife Stadium usually has an artificial turf field when the Giants and Jets play there, but installed grass fields in order to meet FIFA\u2019s regulations for hosting games. <\/p>\n

Kova\u010d preferred the grass fields at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati and Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs you saw, the watering wasn\u2019t good enough, I would say, because you don\u2019t have the devices for that,\u201d Kova\u010d said of the MetLife Stadium grass. \u201cWhen it\u2019s too dry, it\u2019s unbelievable. It\u2019s sticking.\u201d<\/p>\n

No matter where you are in the world, you can watch the FIFA Club World Cup for free on DAZN<\/a>. All you need to get started is an email address. No subscription is required, but you will have to make a free account<\/a> on the streamer to start watching.<\/p>\n

DAZN also has premium, paid options available to enhance your viewing experience with HDR picture, Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound, and fewer ads. DAZN Premium<\/a> plans begin at $19.99\/month. <\/p>\n

NFL players have long complained about the turf fields at MetLife Stadium, and the NFL Players Association last month took notice of the decision to install grass for the Club World Cup<\/a>, but not for NFL games.<\/p>\n

Despite the willingness to install a grass field for other sports, Giants owner John Mara has maintained that it would not be sustainable for football, given two teams play at the stadium, the weather and the large number of other events there.<\/p>\n

\"MetLifeGrass fields were installed at MetLife Stadium for the Club World Cup. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to get to the point where the experts can tell us that late in the season we can have a safe, playable grass field, and when we get to that point, then maybe we\u2019ll make the switch,\u201d Mara said at last year\u2019s NFL owners meetings. \u201cWe\u2019re not there yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the amount of events in our building, particularly during the football season, having two teams there, and how many times last year we had back-to-back games where it rained during the first game, I can\u2019t imagine what a grass field would\u2019ve looked like on a second day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The complaints about the MetLife Stadium field are unrelenting. The latest came from German soccer club Borussia Dortmund…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[1924,32980,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-48049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-fifa-club-world-cup","9":"tag-metlife-stadium","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114816327709506606","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}