A PITCH SUITABLE FOR THE GOLDEN LILIES

摘要

The focus for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and much of the media attention was very much on the Stadium pitches. In reality each national team would only arrive at the Stadium one or two days before their fixture as they would train in the Stadium theday before their game. If they arrived two days before the event, each host city had two training pitches that they could utilise. Prior to this each team would be based at their Team Base Camp (TBC). This meant that there were thirty two TBCs located throughout Brazil and fifteen of these were in the State of Sao Paulo alone. Each TBC had all the facilities that a national team might require during their stay and this included a training pitch that was reflective of the conditions they would encounter in the main stadia. Replication of main stadia conditions was challenging when considering the vast expanse of the country, variations in climatic conditions and different grass species that exist from one end of Brazil to the other.