![]() Vincent Kompany’s Clarets have been a complete force, scoring the Championship’s most goals (76) and conceding the fewest (30) in a manner that would make his old boss, Pep Guardiola, quite proud.īurnley’s been led by Nathan Tella’s 17 goals but Jay Rodriguez’s pitched in nine as the Clarets have six players with five or more goals. Across Cascadia even, there are drastic, important differences – distinctions so pronounced, the blanket term “turf” has almost no value.įollow confirmed their return to the Premier League, as they were promoted back to the top flight of English football with a 2-1 victory over Middlesbrough on Friday. Place finds out, games are going play much faster in Vancouver.īut not all turf is the same. And as anybody who even rolls a ball at B.C. Late in the season, when players are worn down, it’s not worth the risk.Īnd the games obviously play different, as Mikael Silvestre found out when a high bounce on JELD-WEN’s surface saw him caught out in his MLS debut. Seattle’s is less criticized but still draws Henry-esque caution, while Portland’s main criticism’s along the lines of “well, it’s still turf.”Īcross all venues, recovery time’s going to be an issue, a reason why you’ll see any number of veterans skip Cascadia calls (even in Portland). You don’t have to go very far to hear complaints. If you were to put them on a spectrum of worst to best (or, to use the Arena range, “disasters” to ‘whatever, I guess’), Vancouver would lie at the far left. The Portland Timbers announced in May that JELD-WEN Field’s surface has received FIFA recommended 2-Star status for the third straight year, one of two fields in the U.S. No field in Major League Soccer sees balls roll or bounce as much as Vancouver’s, a potentially huge advantage based on familiarity alone. In previous posts, I’ve equated it to felt on a pool table, a distortion intended to convey how slick the surface is (and how hard the slab is underneath). ![]() But whereas the Revolution’s is FieldTurf struggles with issues distinct from other FieldTurf instances, BC Place uses LigaTurf, a product of the German company PolyTan. Timbers owner Merritt Paulson enjoys telling the anecdote about how notorious turf critic David Beckham eventually conceded JELD-WEN’s surface is not bad both he and Henry choose (chose) to play in Portland.Ĭontrast that with Vancouver, which may compete with New England as the league’s worst. Portland brags about their turf, perhaps rightly so, as there’s an obvious difference between it and CenturyLink’s. Where this issue becomes particularly interesting is when you compare Seattle’s FieldTurf surface to that of their rivals. If Henry and his doctors are concerned certain chronic issues are more likely to flare up at CenturyLink, then he shouldn’t risk his health for a regular season match. You can’t both have a playoff system and claim the regular season matches are huge. And ultimately, this is just a regular season game. While it’s easy to say this weekend’s is a huge game and Henry should suck it up, he’s never played in Seattle. Jamison Olave’s hamstrings are likely to take a pass, too, but that’s no big surprise. Thierry Henry isn’t going to play this weekend against Seattle.
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