{"id":737443,"date":"2026-06-15T03:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T03:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/737443\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T03:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T03:09:09","slug":"grass-at-vancouvers-bc-place-gets-thumbs-up-from-world-cup-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/737443\/","title":{"rendered":"Grass at Vancouver\u2019s BC Place gets thumbs up from World Cup stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia and Turkey kick off their World Cup Group D match at BC Place in Vancouver on Saturday. A blend of Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass was chosen for the BC Place pitch.Richard Heathcote\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The natural grass pitch installed at Vancouver\u2019s BC Place stadium for the World Cup<\/a> has passed its first test, with some of the globe\u2019s top soccer players giving it a stamp of approval. <\/p>\n

Australia defeated Turkey 2-0<\/a> Saturday in a surprise win in the first-ever men\u2019s World Cup game played in Vancouver. BC Place, which is hosting seven matches, is one of eight stadiums that had to convert its artificial turf pitch to natural grass to meet FIFA\u2019s requirements. <\/p>\n

Australian midfielder Aiden O\u2019Neill, who played on the stadium\u2019s usual pitch against the Vancouver Whitecaps with his New York City FC back in April, called the temporary World Cup playing surface \u201cunbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019ve done such a good job to have it in the condition that it\u2019s in, and I think it will stay like that for the rest of the time,\u201d he told reporters after Saturday\u2019s game. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe ball moved well. It wasn\u2019t too hard. It wasn\u2019t too soft. I think they\u2019ve got it perfect, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pitch perfect: Inside the massive effort to grow World Cup grass <\/a><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s is the most geographically dispersed World Cup to date, with 16 host cities spread across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. The complex logistics posed challenges in ensuring that each pitch met FIFA\u2019s strict pitch performance requirements \u2013 including for ball bounce and shock absorption \u2013 and that they behaved similarly despite being spread across three climatic zones and different elevations. <\/p>\n

To do this, FIFA enlisted turfgrass scientists from the University of Tennessee and Michigan State University who spent US$5-million and five years researching and developing<\/a> this year\u2019s pitches. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia’s Jacob Italiano battles with Turkey’s Baris Alper Yilmaz.Albert Gea\/Reuters<\/p>\n

A blend of Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass, known for its tolerance of temperate climates, was chosen for BC Place. A sod farm in Abbotsford, B.C., grew the grass for a full year, ensuring maturity and consistency, and it was harvested and installed in May. <\/p>\n

The sod is rooted into 340 millimetres of sand and peat, which sits atop a foundation of polymer geocells, a waterproof liner and a network of sensors connected to irrigation and vacuum ventilation systems. Grow lights help the grass recover between matches, while industrial fans prevent root rot and fungal growth.<\/p>\n

Some skeptical soccer fans criticized<\/a> the North American pitches before the tournament even began, convinced the thin rolls of sod and quick turnaround time after installation would make for terrible \u2013 and even dangerous \u2013 playing surfaces. <\/p>\n

Viral video of soccer grass with no bounce misleads World Cup fans<\/a><\/p>\n

Australian goalkeeper Patrick Beach said his team inspected the field the day prior, with everyone giving positive reviews, and that it performed well on match day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pitch was great quality tonight, especially when it\u2019s nice and wet. The ball moves really well,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it was great for both teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turkey captain Hakan Calhanoglu similarly complimented BC Place, which drew a full house of 52,497 spectators on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe quality of the stadium was very nice,\u201d he said. \u201cThe pitch was very good, in the perfect condition. It was nice to play on.\u201d<\/p>\n

BC Place will next host Canada and Qatar on Thursday. Canada is still looking for its first win at the tournament following Friday\u2019s 1-1 draw with Bosnia-Herzegovina<\/a>, which secured the Canadian men\u2019s national team its first-ever World Cup point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Australia and Turkey kick off their World Cup Group D match at BC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-737443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}