Let's all blame the pitch
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 at 6:55PM
spooky in CL Play-Off, artificial pitch, young boys away

Saw this posted by Wriggly over at GG, which I found quite interesting. Only because its now blatantly obvious that the Young Boys cheated. THROW THEM OUT OF EUROPE ! How dare they trick Dawson into playing poorly. Hopefully Blatter was watching.

If anyone can verify these as facts, please go ahead and do so. I have not a clue.

The artificial surface is 5th Generation. This generation of surface has the ability to adjust the height of the 'grass' by millimeters lower or higher, so in winter when the surface is frosty/snowy they can raise it a few mm to help when playing. The surface has a self watering mechanism which leaves tiny beads of moisture on the surface, this helps to prevent injuries when sliding, studs being caught in the surface when its dry, and most commonly things like burns when sliding across the pitch. This Generation fo surface does not move, it used to be layed down in blocks, but this is in one big 'sheet' of turf.

The surface is designed in a way that you should be less susceptible to injuries like groin strains (we got 2 last night) - Although the surface is actually fairly thin, its layed down on shock absorption rubber mats which have been laid down on top of concrete to help with this. So essentially, this surface is better for you when playing football on that side of things. When I asked about our two injuries, he simply replied with 'they probably bottled it, its all in the mind' I bet your players are fit for next game.

Might be useless info for some, but thats some info about the surface.

When i asked about them watering the pitch on top of the self moisture feature, they said that's to benefit only the team that's used to playing on it. He is unsure if that is illegal as its gaining an advantage, but it is not very good sportsmanship.

Article originally appeared on Dear Mr Levy (http://dml23.squarespace.com/).
See website for complete article licensing information.