Serious doubt cast on Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch's pre-World Cup claim - YEP 24/11/22
Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch claimed he didn’t care who won the World Cup but YEP chief football writer Graham Smyth isn’t buying it.
By Graham Smyth
Jesse Marsch you're a bad liar.
Your claim, made prior to the Spurs game, that you did not
care who won the World Cup because you were so immersed in club football with
Leeds United, was difficult if not impossible to believe when you said it. It
jarred, somewhat, not least because it came from the mouth of one who has
perhaps told the truth a little too plainly at times over the past nine months.
It took just a week or so for the patriotism and World Cup
fever to pour forth from him, in a column on the US Men's National Team, for
The Athletic.
In that piece he stated that the 1994 World Cup in his home
country made him dream, and a young US side that includes a pair of his
players, in Brenden Aaronson and Tyler Adams, gives him the same feeling. What
he didn't state but could be inferred without too much of a stretch, was that
the USMNT head coach role in 2026 would be a hell of a job to hold.
Whether or not that is among his ambitions, of course he
cares about the current World Cup and who wins it. Anyone who has watched the
49-year-old operate on the sideline knows just how difficult he finds it to
keep his competitive nature and passion for the game in check. Should Aaronson
pop up to score the unlikeliest of winners against England on Friday night,
Marsch will be stood on a table in Cusco, Peru, whirling above his head whatever
comes to hand in the absence of the Star Spangled Banner.
Even taking patriotism and his affection for his USMNT duo
out of it, football and the World Cup has a habit of making partisan those of
us with every intention of remaining neutral or disinterested. This is a
tainted tournament that should never have been held in Qatar and FIFA's
intervention over the OneLove armband left the sport with a fresh stain, yet as
Maradona said the ball does not get dirty. Outside of the 90, or 100, minutes
of football there has to be discussion of the myriad issues thrown up by the
hosting of this tournament and that must continue no matter what happens on the
pitch.
But football is taking place nevertheless and it has already
reminded us of a beauty it possesses, which is in such stark contrast to the
ugliness of the corruption, inequality and tone-deaf nonsense that hangs around
it.
The performance of Saudi Arabia against Argentina and the
Japanese win over Germany were brilliant, giving us moments that rendered
nationality meaningless. We're all underdogs aren't we? Those games were timely
reminders that anything can happen and anyone can triumph on any given day.
They, just as much as the sensational goals and world-class superstar talents
on display, make the World Cup what it is.
And if you grow up loving football, even in a nation that
counts it as a rare privilege and not a right to appear at a major tournament
like my own Northern Ireland, it's almost impossible to do so without accruing
cherished World Cup memories.
This writer recalls the sensational kit worn by the US on
home soil in '94 and the pair of free-kicks, from the boots of Switzerland's
Georges Bregy and America's Eric Wynalda, in their 1-1 draw, the strange
feeling of elation when Ray Houghton found the Italian net for the Republic of
Ireland and Bebeto's baby-cradling celebration for Brazil.
Since then, regardless of my own country's involuntary
boycott of the tournament, the World Cup has always been a glorious thing. Were
Northern Ireland to qualify in 2026 for the first time since 1986, there is
just no way that I could ever convince anyone, let alone myself, that I would
not care about who won the thing, even if getting there appears beyond our wee
country, never mind going all the way.
So forgive me for suggesting that Marsch was telling porkies
in that press conference, but I don't believe for a second that a man who lives
and breathes this sport and quite happily takes on an ambassadorial role for
Americans in European and English football, could be in any way indifferent to
the identity of the 2022 World Cup winners.
Yes, Leeds United will be at the forefront of his thoughts
because there is much to ponder for the head coach. The impact of a mid-season
tournament and its break period for the domestic game is an unknown quantity
for everyone to deal with and sending his players back into battle at the end
of December in the best possible condition, mentally and physically, will be
occupying Marsch's mind. The January transfer window, which needs to yield a striker
and probably a left-back, if not one or two other additions, will give him
plenty to think about.
But when his boys Aaronson and Adams, and his country take
on the country where he now makes his living, a country where he hopes to
remain until he has tasted success with Leeds, Marsch will be fully invested.
Reality be damned, too, he’ll be hoping for a win, an escape from the group and
much more besides. He cares. You can take the football man out of America but
you can't take the American out of him.