PARIS — Ever see an immaculately trimmed field of perfectly green grass and feel a sudden urge to frolic on it with your shoes off?
World Cup soccer players do, too.
You might observe some doing that, and much more, if you were granted access to a team’s official stadium “familiarization” session, a somewhat peculiar, behind-closed-doors ritual that almost all teams conduct 24 hours before an actual match at this competition.
FIFA grants teams a half-hour window the day before a game to walk through the stadium where they are scheduled to play, so they can soak in the surroundings. Depending on the player or coach, familiarization can be a crucial competitive rite, a boring chore, a touristic exercise or something close to a spiritual experience.
“Everyone’s approach is a different,” United States midfielder Allie Long said. “I personally use it to visualize what it’s going to feel like, what it’s going to look like, and put myself in the positions where I’d be on the field. It’s a time I actually really enjoy.”
The Americans used a full range of approaches the day before each of their group stage matches.
After touring the locker rooms 24 hours before they played Chile on June 16 at Parc des Princes, the players spilled out onto the field, like children filing out for recess.
Two players promptly lay on their backs, spread eagle, and stared up at the sky. Others formed little clusters and took group photographs, posing against the backdrop of the stadium’s Eiffel Tower-themed stands, their laughter echoing through the nearly empty arena.
It seemed as if half the players had their shoes off.
“It’s just an amazing feeling to walk barefooted in some nice grass,” forward Jessica McDonald said, laughing. “It’s just relaxing, feeling connected. The ground feels nice. Freshly cut grass.”
Amid the congenial mingling, some players peeled off for more serious matters.
Tobin Heath walked all the way out to one of the right corner flags — where she is often tasked with delivering a left-footed, in-swinging free kick — and took a few steps back and forth, measuring out the space inside the advertising boards and rehearsing what that moment might be like.
Nearby, forward Mallory Pugh walked around a patch of grass just outside the penalty area, seemingly lost in thought. Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher did her own solitary walk to one of the goals. She set herself up between the posts, turned her back to the net and took a moment to stand there and look out onto the field.
Naeher said she used her familiarization time to check her sightlines and look for any irregularities on the field. In her mind, she rehearsed the walk from the sideline to the goal. Then she, too, took out her phone and snapped a picture.
“Things are going to be crazy, things are going to be hectic,” Naeher said, “so this is a time to be out there with our teammates and then also find a little moment of quiet, take a deep breath, and realize where we are. We’re in France in these beautiful stadiums at a World Cup.”
That sentiment was repeated hours later when Chile did its walk-through.
Several players emerged from the tunnel holding their phones in front of their faces, filming videos as they performed slow, 360-degree rotations. Then the entire team huddled for group photos. Later, two players flopped on their stomachs inside one of the goals for a posed shot.
“For us, it’s a new experience to be here,” goalkeeper Christiane Endler said. (This was Chile’s first time in the Women’s World Cup.) “The stadiums are great. They’re beautiful. You don’t have other chances to be here and take pictures.”
Endler, who plays for Paris St.-Germain, said it was also important to “know the stage where you are going to perform.”
Each stadium presents its own internal maze. The more things that feel familiar on match day, the easier it can be to control the inevitable jitters.
“We go into the locker rooms, and we get to scope out the situation, while our medical staff can figure out where they want to set everything up,” United States defender Becky Sauerbrunn said.
Other players sounded more indifferent about the ritual.
“Honestly, we’re there for 30 minutes, and there’s nothing better to do, so we end up taking our shoes off, sitting down on the grass, taking photos, relaxing, because we’re trying to kill the time,” forward Christen Press said.
(Press actually goes through a more conscientious ritual after every training session. Called “grounding,” it is related to her longtime practice of Vedic meditation. She walks the length of the field barefoot as a way to “put your body in direct contact with the earth.”)
Most players have found some value in the process. The World Cup crowds would be the largest, loudest and craziest that many of them had ever seen, especially those facing the United States, the defending champion. Championships are decided by slim margins, and there can be huge positives in limiting uncertainties.
A prearranged moment of calm, then, can do wonders.
“It is big,” Chilean forward María José Rojas said about the familiarization procedure. “In high-level football, you cannot just come and play.”
