Turf-war advantage goes to home side
EDGE: It’s fair to say Caps’ stellar record at B.C. Place has something to do with stadium’s playing surface
In their 2011 book, Scorecasting, behavioural economist Tobias J. Moskowitz and veteran Sports Illustrated writer L. Jon Wertheim studied, among other things, the hidden forces behind home-field advantage.
After wading through the conventional wisdom, from crowd support to travel, their conclusion was that it had to do with referee bias.
Not intentional bias, just the kind related to human psychology, which, in soccer, apparently results in more favourable cards, penalties and injury time.
If they studied the Vancouver Whitecaps of 2013, perhaps they’d conclude that playing surface can also have something to do with it.
The Caps are 8-1-3 at home this season — 9-1-4 including Canadian championship play — and that one loss might well have been another victory had Jun Marques Davidson not head-butted his way to the showers in the first 10 minutes against Philadelphia.
Vancouver is one of four MLS teams playing on turf, and unique in the fact it’s a Polytan surface, as opposed to the FieldTurf in Seattle, Portland and New England.
And there’s no doubt in midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker’s mind that it’s part of the Caps edge.
“I think it’s a big advantage,” said Reo-Coker, whose Caps host to the L.A. Galaxy at B.C. Place on Saturday (6 p.m., TSN2, TEAM 1410). “For us, we’re used to it. We’ve played on it quite a bit now and not many teams really fancy it. I don’t think a lot of teams like coming here.”
Galaxy coach Bruce Arena, for one, has not been shy of admitting that. Asked about the Jeld-Wen Field turf in Portland in July, he took a shot at the rest.
“This (Portland) is the best one available,” Arena told reporters.
“The other ones in the league are really atrocious and they shouldn’t be allowed. The fields in Seattle, Vancouver and New England are not good fields.”
Attributing too much of the Caps home-field dominance to the turf hardly seems fair. They’ve build a stronger team this season and made a greater effort to play more attacking soccer at home.
The Caps lead the league in home goals with 25 and are second in home-goal difference at plus-12.
For the sake of comparison, Seattle (6-1-3 at CenturyLink Field) and Portland (7-1-4 at Jeld-Wen) also have strong home records on turf this season, but New England is just 5-4-3 at Gillette Stadium.
Still, Reo-Coker’s at least an interesting gauge on the topic because he’s new to the artificial stuff this season. “It takes a while (to adjust),” he said. “I’m still not 100 per cent used to it, if I’m honest. The bounce, the weight of pass, it’s completely different.
“It’s a difficult transition from playing on grass, but we’ve made it our own and we’ve made it difficult for anyone who’s come here.”
Caps’ fullback Jordan Harvey figures the mental edge of playing on turf is as advantageous as anything the surface does to the ball.
“If other teams don’t like it, we’re good with it,” he said. “That works for us.”