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Two of the Bangor area’s most successful soccer coaches expect the United States team to advance to the knockout stage of the World Cup but have different opinions when it comes to how far they will go beyond that.
The World Cup began on Thursday and is being held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The 48 teams will be divided into 12 four-team brackets and will play each team in its own group once. The top two teams in each bracket and the eight best third-place teams will advance to the 32-team knockout (single-elimination) stage.
The U.S opened against Paraguay on Friday night in Inglewood, California.
They will also play Australia on June 19 in Seattle and Turkey on June 25 back in Inglewood.
“If you look at the bracket, they are set up really well to get out of the group stage,” said University of Maine women’s soccer coach Scott Atherley, who has guided his Black Bears to three straight America East tournament titles and NCAA Division I Tournament appearances.
“If they don’t get out of the group phase, it’s safe to say it will be a complete disappointment,” Atherley added. “If you [advance] out of the group stage, anything can happen. Matchups are really critical. The depth of the U.S. team is excellent.”
“I think they will finish second in the group to Turkey,” said Hermon High School girls soccer coach M.J. Ball, who has guided his Hawks to seven Class B North championships in 12 years. “But they have to get something out of the Paraguay game. Ideally, they get the win. But they can’t lose to Paraguay.”
Both spoke highly of United States head coach Mauricio Pochettino, an Argentinian who has coached Espanyol in La Liga, Spain’s top league; Paris Saint-Germain in French’s Ligue 1; and English Premier League clubs Southampton, Tottenham and Chelsea.
“I love his personality and that bodes well in a tournament format like this,” Atherley said. “You need somebody who is even-tempered and really good with player-management and so forth. I think they could go pretty well deep into the tournament.”
Ball said in previous World Cups, the U.S. turned in some “very disappointing, lackluster performances.”
“He definitely has them playing the right way and defending the right way,” said Ball. “He obviously understands the game and has coached at a very high level. He will get the most out of his players.”
Ball said he doesn’t expect the U.S. to advance beyond the round up 32 and make it to the final 16, although he acknowledged that it could come down to matchups.
“It would be awesome if they did. Getting to the quarterfinals would be a wonderful accomplishment, but it would end there, regardless,” said Ball.
Ball and Atherley both feel the United States will see another boost in soccer interest and participation like it did after the 1994 World Cup, which it hosted by itself.
“You think of where we were in ’94 relative to interest and competitiveness. The interest in soccer has grown significantly and a lot of that has to do with the MLS and the women’s pro leagues,” said Atherley. “As a nation, we have really started to develop talent. A lot of our players on the men’s and women’s side play overseas in Europe.”
He called the women’s national team “trendsetters.” They have won four World Cups, more than any other country.
“This is the largest sporting event in the world. There is so much interest in it, globally,” said Atherley, noting the television exposure will be good for all three host countries.
Ball said 1994 “brought a lot of money into soccer which certainly helped. Hopefully this will galvanize even more soccer.”
But the astronomical ticket prices bother both Ball and Atherley.
“My hope is ticket prices will continue to go down,” said Ball, who attended the 1994 World Cup. “In ’94, we were able to go to games for 50 bucks. They were great games. Obviously times are different.”
The England-born Ball said looked into seeing his home country play Ghana at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, but the cheapest ticket he could find was $881.
Hotels at Patriot Place are “like a thousand dollars a night. Everything is so outrageous,” he said.
Ball pointed out that one of the major problems is that FIFA has taken over the logistics and control of the tournament instead of relying on local organizing committees like it did in the past and that has impacted corporate partnerships and ticket pricing.
“FIFA is getting a cut from everything. It’s unfortunate,” said Ball. “I have friends who work for the Cross Insurance Company and they have a corporate box at Gillette and I reached out to them to see if there was any way I could get a spot in the box for the England-Ghana game. They said FIFA has taken over all the boxes so they can’t use their own box. The VIP packages are like $50,000 for a box. That’s crazy. I think that’s awful.”
Atherley said the costs are “really unfortunate” and prohibit a lot of people from attending.
Atherley expects Spain, France and defending champ Argentina to be the favorites, but that you also can’t count out Germany, Brazil and England.
“[Argentina star Lionel Messi] is a little older but he can change a game in a second,” said Atherley. “France has an incredible attack in terms of their front line. They are the most dangerous team in the tournament. And Spain is good top to bottom and is hard to beat.”
“It will be France and Spain in one semifinal and England and Argentina in the other,” predicted Ball. “France will beat Spain. They are too good, top to bottom. My hope is that England can finally beat Argentina and not go to penalties. And if England can get to the final, I think they will get it done.”