A quick police-escorted bus ride from the team’s tony Back Bay hotel, the temporary home of Les Bleus is enclosed almost entirely by a new 8-foot high, black-scrimmed fence and a ring of towering trees that is nearly uninterrupted by a single building.
An impeccably mowed and plush soccer field sits next to a baseball diamond’s outfield where the goalies will practice.
Both are steps from the school’s hockey arena, where the team will use its training areas and locker rooms. A sign reading “Fiers detre Bleus” (proud to be blue) with a crowing Gallic rooster, the country’s national symbol, is plastered outside the building.
Bentley is “not like many campuses and [France was] definitely worried about being able to do their work without worrying about anything around them,” said Vaughn Williams, Bentley’s director of athletics, on Tuesday. “Waltham’s a great community. They’re going to let us do our thing, we’re going to do our thing, and they’re great partners with us, so I think they’ve provided all the things that France wanted that could help them train appropriately.”
An invite-only practice with area youth soccer players on Friday is the closest any member of the public is going to get to lay eyes on Les Bleus.
More than a hundred members of the French and international media who will be covering the team will be shepherded from their nearby media center for 15 minutes of visitation rights to the team’s daily practices.
Besides needing credentials, any other visitor to the area will need to go through metal detectors.
The practice area is under a no-fly zone that’s under 24-hour security monitoring with beefed-up staffing and video cams, bomb-sniffing dogs will comb the area before each practice, and anti-drone equipment sits at the ready.
Beyond keeping the team safe, the tight lid is meant to take espionage attempts into the French team’s strategy and fitness out of any unsavory actor’s equation.
Privacy was a major consideration when France picked Bentley University as its training site.Lane Turner/Globe Staff
“Any World Cup team wants to practice in an environment conducive to no interruptions, no visibility, they want to do anything that they do behind a closed door, it’s no different than any basketball or football team, American football team, that would want to have a closed practice,” said Williams. “We provided that, which is a hard thing to do, obviously, in the States.”
When representatives of the team first scouted the area over the winter, Bentley officials had to reassure them that the bare-limbed trees would fill out, and be privacy-ready, by June, said Williams.
Bentley had to be won over, said Williams, before deciding it would bear the time, energy, and expense to make the adjustments France sought.
And while Williams did not disclose the terms of the contract it and FIFA hammered out with France in late March, he said it’s worth it.
“This is not a moneymaker, but it is a net positive, we’ll make a little money,” said Williams. “But we’re not using any of the university money on this endeavor.”
Bentley’s director of athletics, Vaughn Williams, said hosting the French national soccer team “is not a moneymaker, but it is a net positive.”Lane Turner/Globe Staff
Four official goals shipped from France are already set up, with the weight room inside the arena containing a few cardio and other equipment the strength and conditioning crew also brought over. The French will use their own nutrition drinks and snacks on campus but will stick to the Four Seasons for their meals.
Any injured players will join the goalkeepers on the baseball outfield for workouts.
The pitch, one of the few top-notch, all-grass fields in the area and central to France’s plans, will be cut every day to the same .86-inch height FIFA requires in all 16 host venues, with the same approximately 10-foot-wide alternating bent-grass swaths that give the field a striped look.
The field will be watered before and during breaks in the team’s practices to simulate game conditions in how the players plant and move their feet, as well as ball-passing speed and consistency.
Because the Bentley soccer team played deep into the season, the grass at midfield and in front of each goal was beat up entering the winter, said Ryan Gaffey, director of facilities services.
Combined with a cold, wet spring, the growing season started late.
“We were getting a little nervous with the growth. It was really, really slow,” said Gaffey.
This year’s cold, wet spring had those at Bentley, including director of facilities services Ryan Gaffey, worried at first.Lane Turner/Globe Staff
But three sweeps of seeding have taken hold, and a warm and sunny day such as Tuesday was making Gaffey happy because he knew it would make the French team happy.
Only the prospect of a rainy summer is causing him stress.
“Warm and dry is fine, this is perfect, we could have this every day,” he said. “We’re ready to go.”
Why the French national team chose Bentley University as their practice facilities for the World Cup
Michael Silverman breaks down how the grass quality, maintenance, and security influenced the French national team’s decision to train at Bentley University. (undefined)
Michael Silverman can be reached at [email protected].
