Toronto FC head coach Ryan Nelsen admits the pitch at BMO Field is becoming more and more of a problem for his team.
The subpar surface has been an issue in the early stages of the 2014 MLS campaign but now Nelsen has spoken out after generally keeping his thoughts to himself regarding the issue.
The field is populated with divots and holes which clearly impacts the way the Reds play and has created a sort of home ground disadvantage in the eyes of the boss.
"It's a major problem, a major leveller," said Nelsen. "That evens it out for the other team.
"It's frustrating, because we want to play an attractive, attacking brand of football, and the field at the moment, it's probably not conducive to that unfortunately.
"In saying that, we still put together 530 passes on Saturday and that was more than any team in the whole league did, even on the better fields. It's the brand of football we want to be playing, and we want to be hard to beat, which is frustrating because we let in a couple of soft goals."
TFC veteran Dwayne De Rosario agreed with Nelsen's sentiments as the team prepares for the semi-final first leg of the Canadian Championship with Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday night.
"If you look at the last couple of games at home, it's almost like the other team had the advantage playing on our field," said De Rosario.
"We need to change that. Obviously, there's two teams playing on it, but we're a team that likes to play on the ground, play a ball movement and ball speed (game) and it's hard -- when you've got bobbles and the grass is high like last game -- to really penetrate and get those balls through.
"But in saying that, if we're looking to make a playoff push and potentially go on to the Cup, we'll have to play at BMO in pretty much in worse conditions than we have right now (in the fall).
"So we have to learn how to deal with that and just battle through the field conditions."
