Borussia Dortmund manager Niko Kovac suggested the Club World Cup pitches resemble a golf green in that they would be good for practising your putting, but less so for playing games of football.
Dortmund lost 3-2 to Real Madrid on Saturday at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which is where both semi-finals and the final of this tournament will be played.
Real will face Paris Saint-Germain in one of those semis, while Chelsea will meet Fluminense. The 2026 World Cup final will also be held here at this stadium.
After it was confirmed that his side had exited this competition, Kovac said: ‘This pitch and with the pitches we’ve played on in Cincinnati and also in Atlanta, the grass quality is different in the stadiums.
‘It’s more a golf green. You can putt here. It’s very short. This is not the grass we are used to playing on in the Bundesliga and also the other stadiums.
‘As you saw, the watering wasn’t good enough, I’d say, because you don’t have the licence for that. For high-speed football, you need good conditions and you need also a good pitch, the right pitch. When it’s too dry, it’s unbelievable, it’s sticky, I can’t explain it.
Borussia Dortmund boss Niko Kovac suggested Club World Cup pitches resemble a golf green
Dortmund lost 3-2 to Real Madrid on Saturday at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey
‘I would like for you to go out and test it and then you will see how it is.’
Now out of the Club World Cup, Kovac also suggested the kick-off times could be selected more sensibly.
‘We played two times in Cincinnati – the first time, it was 12 o clock, the second time, 3pm. On the pitch we had temperatures of around 45 degrees. If you go out running and the temperature is 45 degrees, this is very hard. Today we had 35 degrees, which is also not much better.
‘But OK, this is the tournament we need to play. My suggestion is that the kick-off times should be a little later. As a spectator, you would like to see intensive, aggressive, up-and-down football. When it’s too hot, it’s difficult to play this kind of football.’
Meanwhile, tickets for the first semi-final, which will be played between Chelsea and Fluminense, were set at more than £300 per person. On Friday, the asking price dropped to £32.66 and on Saturday, it became £9.81.
