Sam Adekugbe

[Watchmen]

I'm starting to think he might not be ready for the Copa.

[saladroit]

[Unnamed Trialist]

Probably the player we missed the most these weeks for Canada. The guy who could hold down LB and release Davies without fear, or sub him.

[PegCityCam]

On in the 60th against Houston and serves up a beauty of an assist on the third goal. Whitecaps rolling in the second half.

Edit. here it is:

 

Edited July 21 by PegCityCam

[CanadaFan123]

He’s quality. Looking forward to seeing him back with Canada. 

[ahmedou]

Ade's Back ❤️

[Watchmen]

50 minutes ago, ahmedou said:

Ade's Back ❤️

There's a couple games between now and then. Let's see what happens.

[ahmedou]

[BearcatSA]

The most important ability is availability and at this stage of his career, he doesn't have it.  I feel badly for players who can't stay healthy but it is difficult to stay employed or find other clubs if that is on your cv 

I wish him a speedy and full recovery.

[Watchmen]

On 8/27/2024 at 2:21 PM, Watchmen said:

There's a couple games between now and then. Let's see what happens.

Prescient.

[Kadenge]

What's the nature of his most recent injury?

[Watchmen]

1 minute ago, Kadenge said:

What's the nature of his most recent injury?

Groin strain. Day to day.

Edited September 3 by Watchmen

[Chad_Impact]

I wish the whitecaps could get some grass in BC place. Injury prone players + turf ain't a great combo. 

Edited September 3 by Chad_Impact

[Watchmen]

1 hour ago, Chad_Impact said:

I wish the whitecaps could get some grass in BC place. Injury prone players + turf ain't a great combo. 

I wish the city of Vancouver hadn't blocked a privately funded stadium that would have had a grass pitch, which was always more likely to work than grass in BC Place that will never be long term. Ever.

[BearcatSA]

2 hours ago, Chad_Impact said:

I wish the whitecaps could get some grass in BC place. Injury prone players + turf ain't a great combo. 

Don't sign njury prone players.  TFC play on grass have arguably more injury issues.  How do Vancouver's Cascadia rivals, who also play on Field Turf, do in the injury department?  (Not rhetorical with this; just interested in comparing.)

[SthMelbRed]

9 hours ago, Watchmen said:

I wish the city of Vancouver hadn't blocked a privately funded stadium that would have had a grass pitch, which was always more likely to work than grass in BC Place that will never be long term. Ever.

I believe it was the Port of Vancouver, which is the Feds, rather than city hall, that ultimately blocked the stadium project.

[Watchmen]

4 minutes ago, SthMelbRed said:

I believe it was the Port of Vancouver, which is the Feds, rather than city hall, that ultimately blocked the stadium project.

Technically, I think it was CP Rail (which is also the Feds).  But it only went to that because city hall refused multiple other locations (one of which they had recommended, another of which was on waterfront land already owned by Kerfoot), forcing the club in to a negotiation with CP Rail.

[Joe MacCarthy]

9 hours ago, BearcatSA said:

Don't sign njury prone players.  TFC play on grass have arguably more injury issues.  How do Vancouver's Cascadia rivals, who also play on Field Turf, do in the injury department?  (Not rhetorical with this; just interested in comparing.)

The other side of the argument

[Joe MacCarthy]

It might surprise folks to know there are 15/32 artificial turf fields in the NFL and 6/29 in MLS.

The NFL is particularly surprising because of the NFLPA's long battle against artificial turf, which looking at the present numbers below, must have softened. (the AT and/or the PA resistance)

Hellas Matrix Turf - 5
FieldTurf Core - 3
FieldTurf Revolution - 3
UBU Speed Series S5-M  - 2
FieldTurf - 1
A-Turf Titan 50 - 1

Hellas Matrix Turf seems to be the artificial turf du jour and Canadian stadiums have usually gone with the state of the art for the time, so maybe we can project Hellas Matrix Turf as what will be laid in Edmonton when they replace their nine year old AT in the near future.

[red card]

On 9/4/2024 at 3:47 AM, Joe MacCarthy said:

It might surprise folks to know there are 15/32 artificial turf fields in the NFL and 6/29 in MLS.

The NFL is particularly surprising because of the NFLPA's long battle against artificial turf, which looking at the present numbers below, must have softened. (the AT and/or the PA resistance)

Hellas Matrix Turf - 5
FieldTurf Core - 3
FieldTurf Revolution - 3
UBU Speed Series S5-M  - 2
FieldTurf - 1
A-Turf Titan 50 - 1

Hellas Matrix Turf seems to be the artificial turf du jour and Canadian stadiums have usually gone with the state of the art for the time, so maybe we can project Hellas Matrix Turf as what will be laid in Edmonton when they replace their nine year old AT in the near future.

It hasn't abated as seen in the ongoing Sportico's NFL Turf Wars series.

Ohio legislature is considering a law that would require that the playing surface of all professional sporting stadiums in Ohio be composed of not less than 90% natural grass. 

11 venues hosting World Cup 2026 installing grass will further stoke the issue. 92% of the players prefer grass. NFL has no strict rules about field standards other than hardness. 

A new NFL grass sod field costs US$300-500k. That might need to be replaced once or twice per year. Up to 10 times per year for the Dolphins who have their own sod farm. Then, another $1m/yr for field maintenance, grow lights, hydronic heating, aeration systems, staff and fertilizer. 

Replacement & maintenance is dependent on non-NFL events hosted. SoFi, Met Life and AT&T stadiums all generated more than $50 million in profit last year from non-NFL events. The next round of new buildings will need to host more than NFL games to justify the cost and help owners pay down construction debt. Cities want more than just football at these venues if they are going to foot part of the cost. 

A NFL turf field typically costs $1-2 million and lasts 3-5 years ex stadiums like Atlanta's which is replaced every 2 years due to high usage. There are no 100% slit film fields left, although Carolina and Buffalo have multi-fiber fields of slit film and mono.

https://www.sportico.com/leagues/football/2024/nfl-turf-debate-medical-legal-lines-1234795521/

[Unnamed Trialist]

On 9/4/2024 at 6:42 AM, Watchmen said:

Technically, I think it was CP Rail (which is also the Feds).  But it only went to that because city hall refused multiple other locations (one of which they had recommended, another of which was on waterfront land already owned by Kerfoot), forcing the club in to a negotiation with CP Rail.

Kerfoot owned the shunting rights below where he wanted to put the stadium, I believe, not the land don't think.

No matter, the provincial government needed to justify the massive cost of the reno of BC Place and Caps were part of that plan it seems.

[Watchmen]

1 hour ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Kerfoot owned the shunting rights below where he wanted to put the stadium, I believe, not the land don't think.

No matter, the provincial government needed to justify the massive cost of the reno of BC Place and Caps were part of that plan it seems.

He owned "the air above the shunting ground", and the plan had been to build the stadium over top of the rail lines. Thanks to a campaign quietly sponsored by other real estate developers who want that territory for condos/office towers, the stadium was moved to "over water/land owned by CP". Hence the negotiations began. The provincial government really didn't have much to do with it, but did see an opportunity to add another tenant to justify the renovation. And the Whitecaps (knowing the moment was there to get an MLS team) took it, because their options had become so limited.

We're ultimately further ahead as a soccer nation than we were in 2010, but what might have been...

[Soro17]

43 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

He owned "the air above the shunting ground", and the plan had been to build the stadium over top of the rail lines. Thanks to a campaign quietly sponsored by other real estate developers who want that territory for condos/office towers, the stadium was moved to "over water/land owned by CP". Hence the negotiations began. The provincial government really didn't have much to do with it, but did see an opportunity to add another tenant to justify the renovation. And the Whitecaps (knowing the moment was there to get an MLS team) took it, because their options had become so limited.

We're ultimately further ahead as a soccer nation than we were in 2010, but what might have been...

Meanwhile, still waiting for the Gastown improvement project!

[costarg]

On 9/4/2024 at 3:12 AM, Joe MacCarthy said:

The other side of the argument

There are exceptions to every rule/standard. 

Big picture is overall most athletes don't want to play on turf.  Owners want and prefer turf. 

Pretty much all we need to know about the subject lies there.  Issue is NFL players don't have another league they can go to in protest.

[Joe MacCarthy]

2 hours ago, red card said:

Turf Wars: NFL’s Playing Surface Debate Crosses Medical, Legal Lines

Getting back to the original question of connecting injuries to artificial turf, I am admittedly cherry picking quotes from the above article to show that the above assumption (turf injuries) is not cut and dried.  There is more to it with more nuance than we think.  I am not trying to say one turf type is better than the other but perhaps trying to say one is not as bad as we may think, and the other may not be as good as we think.

Inconclusive Studies

Data on NFL player injuries and playing surface presents a mixed bag. Some of the data suggests that playing on synthetic turf is associated with a higher frequency of injury than playing on grass. But other data paints a murkier picture, including some evidence that grass might be a more dangerous surface for certain athletic movements.

Earlier this year, a joint NFL-NFLPA study found that noncontact lower-extremity injuries per play were essentially the same on turf and grass in both 2023 and 2021, though injuries occurred at a higher rate on turf in 2022.

There has been no shortage of studies on sports and playing surfaces, and they paint a similarly conflicting picture. A 2020 study published in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, found that NCAA soccer players who practice on natural grass “have increased risk of ACL injury compared with the risk of those practicing on an artificial surface,” and that was true “regardless of sex or NCAA division of play.” A 2022 study published in the same journal concluded that ACL injuries for high school soccer players were more likely to occur on artificial turf, but the data didn’t find surface type as meaningful for high school football players.

“Well-kept grass in an NFL stadium is, in general, safer than using a turf field in that stadium, but the difference—especially when looking at modern types of turf—is less than what a lot of people think,” Dr. David J. Chao, an internationally recognized orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist, said in a phone interview.

He stressed that “each kind of surface has pros and cons in terms of types of injuries that are more likely to occur,” with grass posing a higher risk for certain types of injuries. 

To that point, Chao highlighted how the “type of cleat a player uses and how that cleat interfaces with a given surface is an important safety factor that often gets overlooked.” He also noted that “weather concerns” for NFL games played in wintery, cold-weather climates further complicates the analysis further.