The Home Depot Center field looked nice the last time I saw it, so any highlight-worthy moments will have a good background.
It did change between Saturday and Sunday, though. This year, the league decided to regulate MLS fields, mandating that they be mowed in rows straight across the field. Why the league feels this is more important than doing something about the artificial fields with the football markings, I don't know.
The HDC grounds crew used to have a little fun with the grass, cutting it into patterns. My favorite one was a diamond-shaped pattern that would start at the center circle and extend out. It was a nice artistic touch that was killed by the new rules.
For the USWNT national team game on Saturday, the grounds crew decided to mow in another pattern, a circle swirl that also converges on the midpoint of the field. It was good to see the old creativity back, but before I even finished my report on the match, another lawnmower had wiped out the patten and returned the field to MLS striping for the next day versus Real Salt Lake.
SuperLiga may not adhere to the MLS standard, but it probably does, so I don't know when we'll see the grass in anything but horizontal stripes. At least it won't be in the weird lines of a newly-laid field, like it was after the X Games.
2 comments:
Interesting that you bring this up! My coworker and his young son went to the Chelsea Galaxy open trainings back in July and when they went to the 200 level stands they saw a very interesting pattern that was cracking them up. At about the 18 yard box you could see that they mowed a round swirl at the sideline, then straight across, made a U turn at the other sideline then came back and made another round swirl. There was something obviously very "Male" about that pattern.
i love it when you blog about grass! its good to hear that the HDC is set up with some good cali green!
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