Why some Club World Cup pitches ‘aren’t great’ — and what that means for the 2026 World Cup

“The pitches,” Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham said, “aren’t great.” They’ve been “slow,” according to multiple players, and “dry.” From New Jersey to Seattle, grass fields in place for the Club World Cup have been “totally different” than the ones European teams are used to. On some, Bellingham said, the ball “holds up” and “barely bounces”; on another, PSG coach Luis Enrique said, it was “jumping around like a rabbit.” At MetLife Stadium, Borussia Dortmund’s Niklas Süle was blunt: “The pitch was pretty terrible.”

And no, they weren’t making excuses. Bellingham and Enrique were speaking after victories. They were merely highlighting what Enrique called “an obvious problem,” and one that looms over the 2026 World Cup.

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“Hopefully,” Bellingham concluded, “someone will look at that going into the World Cup next year.”

Fortunately, scores of experts have been looking into it. And in fact, one reason for the suboptimal Club World Cup surfaces is that, in some cases, infrastructure installed specifically for 2026 isn’t yet in use.

At Seattle’s Lumen Field, for example, the 2026 World Cup pitch will be laid months in advance. Its grass will root into several inches of sand, and subsist on a purpose-built irrigation system. It should feel and play more like a permanent grass field — like the ones in Philadelphia and Miami, which have not received much, if any, criticism this summer.

Seattle’s Club World Cup pitch, on the other hand, was laid around 10 days in advance. It is strips of sod placed on top of temporary flooring. It is only a couple inches thick, according to one person familiar with its installation. And it must be watered by hand.

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But it mustn’t be over-watered, or else it will get soggy and divot-y — because there aren’t several inches of sand to hold the excess water, like there will be next summer.

And with only a standard dose of water, the grass can get parched underneath an afternoon sun.

This, it seems, is the issue PSG encountered in Seattle.

“Since it was an artificial pitch before, and now a natural pitch, you have to water it by hand, and it dries out in 10 minutes,” Enrique said.

PSG defender Achraf Hakimi added, via an interpreter: “It slows down the whole match a little bit when the field is very dry.”

MetLife Stadium’s temporary issues

Multiple teams have had a similar experience at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which is slated to host both the Club World Cup final and next summer’s World Cup final.

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“I do feel like the pitch caused us to be a bit imprecise,” Porto coach Martín Anselmi said after a 0-0 draw with Palmeiras.

“I think the pitch should have been watered a little more,” Palmeiras winger Estêvão said. “The ball was a little slow, which interferes with the pace of the game.”

MetLife, like other U.S. World Cup venues, has undergone construction over the past 18 months to ready itself for 2026. It has installed irrigation and ventilation systems, two FIFA non-negotiables that will allow it to maintain an international soccer-standard grass field next summer.

Whether those systems are operational this summer, though, is unclear. A spokeswoman for MetLife Stadium said that its field manager was not available for interviews, and declined to answer emailed questions. FIFA did not make its experts available for interviews.

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Prior to the Club World Cup, though, Blair Christiansen, MetLife Stadium’s pitch manager for the tournament, told reporters that the temporary grass field had a “unique profile,” with a drainage layer — similar to what SoFi Stadium in Southern California piloted in March, and what multiple U.S. stadiums are planning to use next summer. A person familiar with MetLife’s plans confirmed to Yahoo Sports that its Club World Cup field is indeed that so-called “shallow pitch profile.”

“It seems to be what we believe will be an outstanding surface for the tournament,” Chrstiansen said.

So, why was it “dry” when Porto played Palmeiras on June 15, and still “a little bit dry,” according to Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel, when Dortmund played Fluminense on June 17? Why was it “nothing compared to the grass we [usually] play on,” as Dortmund’s Pascal Gross said?

Perhaps because the sod was cut from a New Jersey turf farm, trucked to MetLife, and fused together less than a week before the Club World Cup began.

How the 2026 World Cup will be different

MetLife Stadium hosted The Weeknd on June 7. Other Club World Cup venues also hosted non-soccer events in May or early June, within weeks of kickoff. By the time FIFA got around to organizing this novel tournament last year, many stadium owners, intent on maximizing profits, had already booked concerts or other shows in or near the same window. Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, for example, had Metallica on June 3, and has Beyonce coming July 10 — which ruled it out as the potential host of a Club World Cup semifinal.

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FIFA, therefore, had no leverage to negotiate longer runways for pitch installations prior to the tournament.

In 2026, though, it has already negotiated “exclusive use” periods that begin weeks before the World Cup. And some fields will go in earlier. Atlanta will build its grass pitch in the winter, prior to the 2026 MLS season, and maintain it until mid-summer.

The person familiar with MetLife’s plans told Yahoo Sports that it, too, would put in a conventional field for the 2026 World Cup. The “shallow pitch profile” is merely a temporary solution for the Club World Cup.

As for Seattle, a spokeswoman for the Seahawks, whose owners operate Lumen Field, directed inquiries to a spokeswoman for FIFA, who did not respond to an interview request.

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But in general, at the 11 U.S. stadiums set to host 2026 World Cup matches, there is confidence that next summer will be smoother.

In the meantime, FIFA and its field managers are learning from the Club World Cup, and adapting.

“FIFA continues to monitor key performance indicators such as surface hardness, traction, and ball roll,” a FIFA spokesperson wrote in a statement to Yahoo Sports. “While acknowledging that grass type and climate differ in different parts of the world, adjustments are made in real time based on weather conditions, pitch usage, and match schedules to ensure high-quality playing surfaces and prioritize player safety across all venues.

“FIFA always values direct feedback from players and coaches. In some cases, this has led to adaptive measures — such as pitch irrigation during cooling breaks — being introduced for the first time under FIFA protocol to support optimal ball movement in warmer conditions.”