Mark Konezny – USA TODAY Sports
Members of the US Women’s Soccer team have voiced their lack of satisfaction for the artificial pitches that will be used at the 2015 World Cup in Canada.
Midfielder Carli Lloyd, who has two Olympic gold medals to her name (the most recent from London 2012) has strongly stated that she is weary of the injury risks that come with playing on an artificial surface.
The 31 year old said in an interview with the BBC:
“As a soccer player we would all rather play on grass fields. My biggest concern is the injuries. It takes several weeks to recover from playing on [artificial] turf. It’s bad on your joints, not to mention all those rubber pellets. Those pellets are there to help you slide, sometimes in the grass there’s no rubber pellets and your foot can get stuck and that’s when injuries can happen. I just don’t want soccer getting to that point where everybody’s playing on artificial turf.”
Only one of the six stadiums at next year’s World Cup in Canada will have real grass turf. So it is an understandable and very relevant discussion, especially as if it is being passed as a suitable option for the Women’s World Cup, then it could also be the same for a future Men’s World Cup.
The 2012 Women’s FIFA Player of the Year, Abby Wambach pointed this out via Twitter:
I usually don’t retweet articles about myself, but I think is too important to stay silent on. The men should worry too, they could be next.
— Abby Wambach (@AbbyWambach) April 1, 2013
The use of such pitches is not so much a surprise given the fact that Canada is the tournament host, as the cold northern weather leads to frozen pitches. More so, the stadiums selected host other sports such as American Football, which is predominately played on artificial surfaces.
Lloyd however still has faith that the pitch choices can be overturned:
“I hope that we, as players, can do something – as well as other countries and federations and just let FIFA know that we’re not really too happy about this decision.”
For both Lloyd and Wambach, they have one key achievement missing from their successful soccer careers – a World Cup winners medal. 2015 could well be their last shot.
Stowe Gregory is a featured Soccer and Sports writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him or tweet on Twitter @stowegregory. Or add to circles on Google +
