There will be 17 ground staff sitting pitchside waiting, if the unforeseen happens and the goalposts or damaged they have five minutes to bring the goalposts from the tunnel and replace them.

It is the World Cup semi-final between reigning champions Argentina and England in Atlanta Stadium, where anywhere between 1 billion and 500 million eyes will be on Stuart Wilson and his team. And there is no margin for error.

The Bedfordshire native, who has lived in Blackrock, Co Louth for the last 14 years, began his journey at Woburn Golf Club as an assistant greenkeeper.

All-Ireland Hurling Final week would usually have looked very different but the former Croke Park Pitch Manager switched to FIFA Pitch Venue Manager ahead of an eight-game intensive World Cup schedule in Atlanta.

Tonight they face their biggest challenge, it is the 40-year anniversary of the Hand of God, a potential Messi international swansong, and latest chapter in a rivalry for the ages.

“You have to sometimes pinch yourself when you’re looking at the superstars that are playing on the pitch you’ve produced, that’s where the pride comes in,” said Wilson.

“There’s anxiety and nervousness, without a doubt, because you just want them to be happy and comfortable on the playing surface that you’re producing, but that’s down to the performance testing, the numbers, the work we’ve done to get to this point.

“I see no issues at all with what they’re going to be playing on and I’m very confident they’ll enjoy playing on this surface. When you see the superstars out there, it gives you goosebumps, because you’re doing that for them and that’s why I love it.

“I’m still involved in sport, even though I’m not playing it, I feel like I’m a big part of what’s happening.”

Wilson followed his brother Jody into sports turf management, both started their careers at Woburn, with the latter eventually becoming course manager Mid Herts Golf Club in Hertfordshire.

Stuart joined Stowe School as Assistant Groundsman and Greenkeeper and later St Paul’s Catholic School, but his big break came at the Emirates Stadium in February 2009, where he learned his trade from Paul Ashcroft.

“Paul is still in charge there, I would be very fond of him and we’d still be good friends,  I’d look up to him. He’s very proud of where I am and what I’m doing,” said Wilson.

“But he’s got a huge role at Arsenal. He was the person that set me on my way with the real high professional quality of sports management. His level and attention to detail is some of the best you’ll see around the world.

“I’ve been fortunate that I’ve worked at venues that the quality is so high, the attention to detail, European Tour events at Woburn, and then going into work in Champions League and Premier League games.

“That high level quality becomes part of you, but I’m still probably yet to witness the levels and the attention to detail that was at the Emirates when I was there.

“It was through the roof, you’re almost afraid to even step on the playing surface.”

Wilson met his Irish wife Sonya while at Arsenal and he later moved to Ireland, where he joined the Aviva Stadium as Assistant Head Groundsman before the opportunity arose in Croke Park in January 2012.

“I tried to raise the levels and we did that over time. We had to introduce some new things and there was a lot of hard work that went into that but I was lucky to fall into the job,” said Wilson.

“I got that position and spent nearly 15 years there. I’ve been very fortunate to work on some top surfaces and Croke Park really helped me with Atlanta, because Croke Park is such a highly used playing surface and the amount of turnarounds that we had over weekends, and from one weekend to the other.

“You had minimal time to get the pitch turned around for such huge games and my experience is coming through from my days there, and even though we’re not playing the same sports here we’re still maintaining a playing surface.”

Wilson left Croke Park in April and arrived in USA on 14 May, three months after the construction on the pitch at Atlanta Stadium began.

It was a huge task to turn an artificial surface into a natural pitch ready to host a World Cup in an enclosed venue with over 70,000 fans in attendance.

They undertook extensive research on the grass species which would perform best in the harsh environs and settled on a Kentucky Blue smooth stalk, meadow grass.

Then Spain and Capo Verde kicked off proceedings just four weeks after Wilson’s arrival.

“The pitch was constructed and when the actual turf was installed, I arrived and literally a day later we started to turf the pitch. After we’d completed that work, the pitch was stitched with hybrid fibres,” said Wilson.

“It’s a hybrid pitch, what we call the stitch pitch. Every square inch there is artificial fibres injected into the pitch that give it the stability and better traction for the players.”

The fibres are injected down to nine centimetres, with about 1.5 centimetres showing above the turf, covered by the grass.

“I do a lot of performance testing on the pitch, I’m measuring firmness, traction, moisture every day, and the traction levels increased once we injected those fibres,” said Wilson.

“When the player starts to interact with those fibres, the traction improves, so they get more stability. Without that, we’d see a lot more damage and the wear and tear on the pitch would be a lot worse.

“It holds the sand underneath together tighter, the roots entwine around underneath it. It gives you a stronger pitch. If you were to pull on the grass, it’s very hard to move it.”

And while they have already successfully negotiated seven fixtures including England versus DR Congo and Argentina against Egypt, tonight’s semi-final holds a special significance.

The surface is constantly being manicured and perfected while England arrived onsite on Tuesday for a familiarisation session. Teams cannot train on the stadium pitches during the World Cup but they are entitled to get a feel for the venue.

Meanwhile, Wilson and his team have been hard at work and they attended a 97-slide presentation yesterday evening with every minute detail trawled through as preparations ramped up.

“A presentation is given by the FIFA match director. I’m pitch management so I would then present on the pitch and what the actual pitch construction is,” said Wilson.

“I talk through the areas we like the teams to warm up in, the temperatures in the stadium, etc, and go through all the watering process because we can water the pitch kick-off minus six hours, minus three hours, minus one hour, minus 20 minutes. We water at half-time. There’s hydration breaks, if we need to water.

“What we find though in the indoor environment with the watering is that we don’t need as much because it doesn’t dry out as quickly, so there isn’t the need, like there is in the outdoor venues, where it’s very hot.

“There’s all of the different FAs so you’ve broadcast, medical, football technology and the match director will go through literally the moment the teams leave the hotel, the timings, they even talk about how they want their drinks temperatures.”

Kick-off will be at 3pm local time, which presents its own challenges to Wilson’s team. Everything must be completed by 9am, with final preparations beginning at 5am.

They will be mowing the pitch, goal to goal and then side to side, and it will be double marked. Everything is then measured precisely to make sure nothing is missed.

“We take out some brushes and try and remove as many footprints as possible to get the presentation the best we possibly can,” said Wilson.

“To be fair to the guys, I’m very lucky because everybody that’s involved in doing anything on the pitch has been so supportive of protecting the pitch and making sure that they walk the right way down the stripes, even small things like that makes a huge difference.

“We go through a process then of rehearsals, we’ll brush, and then we’re ready to go. The teams will come in, kick-off minus two hours, minus 1.45, and then just before they come out to warm up we’ll put some water on.

“But before that, I will liaise with the coaches to try and get them to warm up in the right areas, use the warm-up goals for the goalkeepers and things like that, and 90 percent of the teams work with you.”

It will be another hectic day for Wilson and once this mammoth fixture is over, the natural pitch will be coming out and the new synthetic surface will be installed ready for NFL pre-season, and the Atlanta Falcons.

Wilson will return to Ireland and he looks forward to making further strides with his new business, Stuart Wilson Sportsturf Consulting LTD. He will be working with the NFL on their international games and Arsenal ahead of their pre-season in Ireland.

He hasn’t ruled out potentially linking up with golf on that side too, while he still plays the game and as a seven-handicapper he looks forward to getting home and out on the local golf course in Dundalk.

“I’ve got back into golf and I’m now playing into single figures. I joined Dundalk a few years ago and my boys both play,” said Wilson.

“I’ve got two boys that are massively keen on sport as well and I love going up and playing nine holes with them in the summer. I can’t wait to get back to do that with them.”