France coach Didier Deschamps says MetLife Stadium pitch ‘really tough’ on players’ muscles

“We have played in the heat (at MetLife) so, if there is some rain, good, because the grass will be faster and the quality will be better, much better than the one in New York,” he said, referring to the venue that FIFA is calling the New York New Jersey Stadium.

“The pitch in New York was really tough — it took a lot out of the players’ muscles.”

This is further than he was willing to go immediately after the Senegal match, when he initially said he was not sure how to answer a question about the pitch, before describing it as “a special surface — it’s different.”

France midfielder Adrien Rabiot was a little less guarded, though, as he said it “seemed more like an artificial pitch … hard and rigid.”

Really starting to think that no pitch surface is acceptable to players except maybe their own.