WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : Spotlight : PLAYERS HIGH ON GRASS AT PONTIAC SILVERDOME

The grass playing surface at the Silverdome met with mostly positive reviews.

The much-celebrated surface for the first indoor World Cup game is the pride of Michigan State turf researchers. Grown in California, the sod was cut, rolled and shipped by truck to Michigan in April, 1992. It was transplanted into metal boxes, most in the shape of hexagons that are 7 1/2 feet across, and drew raves from Germany and England when they played an exhibition on it in June, 1993.

The 1,850 hexagons, 100 triangles and 44 trapezoids had been kept in the Silverdome parking lot, and moving them inside and arranging them into a soccer field took 1,000 man-hours.

Players on Saturday said the surface was slippery, and it resulted in numerous falls, but Bregy of Switzerland and Wynalda of the United States, the goal-scorers, blamed the problem on improper cleats.

“This was a fantastic atmosphere,” Bregy said. “It was really great to play in a dome like this. I liked the turf.”