​MetLife Stadium’s field has been criticized over the years. Players have contended the synthetic turf used for NFL games has contributed to numerous major injuries, prompting repeated calls to replace it with natural grass.Fans got their first glimpse of what that could look like during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, as FIFA requires all venues to have natural grass fields for the tournament.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut not even a surface change has spared MetLife from more complaints.Some World Cup players, such as Brazil forward Vinícius Júnior, have said the pitch is dry. Others, like French midfielder Adrien Rabiot, believe it was too hard. There’s also been talk about its patchiness.“It’s a special surface. It’s different for sure. We’ll get used to this, I guess,” France manager Didier Deschamps said through an interpreter after his side’s June 16 match versus Senegal at MetLife.There’s only one World Cup match remaining in East Rutherford − the final on Sunday, July 19 − following seven previous games hosted at the stadium. In the two weeks between MetLife’s penultimate World Cup game and the final, FIFA had time to remedy some of the issues, including watering system problems and the surface’s hardness.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Record and NorthJersey.com spoke to several turfgrass experts about their thoughts on MetLife’s temporary pitch before it’s showcased one last time this weekend.“There always should be room for improvement if you look critically at things,” said Mike Hahn, a turfgrass researcher and human physiology professor at the University of Oregon. “But has there been increased risk of injury or a dramatic change to the actual flow of the games? I don’t think you can say that.”“If there is some sort of inconsistency with the way the irrigation system is working, my gut sense is they’ll make it right,” said Frank Rossi, director of the Agricultural Sciences program at Cornell University.1 / 29David Graham, the senior pitch manager at FIFA, speaks to members of the media at MetLife Stadium, May 7, 2026, East Rutherford, NJ, USA.(Yannick Peterhans/NorthJersey.com)Creating MetLife’s World Cup pitch was a joint effort between FIFA and researchers at Michigan State University and the University of Tennessee, which were chosen due to professors John Sorochan and Trey Rogers’ previous work at the 1994 World Cup.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe plan called for laying a drainage mat on top of asphalt, which sits under a layer of sand and hybrid bermudagrass.Many have said the field’s dry grass has slowed down the pace of play during games, even though that hasn’t been reflected in scoring totals. MetLife ranks eighth of the 16 World Cup venues with 3.14 goals scored per match, above the tournament-wide average of 2.91.“We want to play. We want to move the ball from one side to the other, and this disrupts our game,” Júnior said after Brazil’s group