Ten months after Minnesota United last played a game at Allianz Field, there's one big beneficiary from the long pandemic pause that ended with Friday's restart of its regular season there:
The pitch.
Allianz Field's newly installed, sophisticated system experienced drainage issues that damaged parts of the field in the stadium's inaugural season. One night, then-LA Galaxy superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic threw a chunk of turf back into a large divot he made during a sliding tackle.
The original grass was removed in September and replaced with new turf from a Wisconsin sod farm three weeks before the Loons lost a first-round playoff game, their first ever.
Friday's game against Sporting Kansas City was their first game on that grass since October, after their scheduled March 15 home opener against New York Red Bulls was canceled and MLS suspended its season for the next four months after just two weeks played.
The field has been pampered since last fall. Loons coach Adrian Heath called it "in absolutely magnificent condition" during a Wednesday video call with reporters.
Veteran midfielder Ethan Finlay considered it "definitely much improved."
"Obviously, it wasn't quite up to the standard that we all hoped," Finlay said on Wednesday. "It's the one thing that's positive that has come out of this long delay and not having a home game in almost 10 months. It looked good. It felt good. It's unfortunately people will only see it on television. We were pinging it around yesterday on the pitch. Guys were buzzing about it."
