WASHINGTON (AP) — If you heard the words spoken after the World Cup draw by the various coaches who were at the Kennedy Center in Washington on Friday, it would seem almost impossible that any of them could win the tournament next year.
All of them were drawn into the toughest group, the “Group of Death,” in soccer parlance.
Each team faced a slate of talented opponents for their first three matches, even as half a dozen participants remain to be determined and the expanded field means that some lower-quality teams will enter the tournament.
And all of them need to avoid underestimating any opponent and be ready for whatever comes during the tournament, which will be played from June 11 to July 19 in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, for the biggest World Cup ever, the first with 48 countries participating (the last time there were 32).
“We need to respect all opponents. It’s always going to be tough,” said the United States coach, Mauricio Pochettino, whose team is in Group D and opens against Paraguay on June 12, then will also face Australia and a playoff winner yet to be determined.
“My message to the players is: We need to compete better than Paraguay; that will be difficult. Australia is going to be tough,” Pochettino said. “And the team that will join us will be tough.”
Hmmm. Do you sense a theme?
There is a version of what is often referred to as the “coach’s speech” in nearly every situation and in almost every sport. Just listen to what the men in charge of NFL teams say day after day during the professional football season.
It’s the classic playbook: praising the opponents. Don’t let your players become complacent. Don’t let your fans, or the people who hire you and could fire you, think success is guaranteed.
Didier Deschamps, a member of the 1998 French champions and the coach of the 2018 world champions and 2022 runners-up to Argentina, sounded as concerned as anyone.
It didn’t matter that France was considered one of the favorites, not only to advance from the group stage but also to appear in the final again.
“We know this is a very difficult group,” Deschamps said on Friday. “We cannot rest.”
His team was placed in Group I alongside Senegal, Norway, and a playoff winner (those will not be decided until March).
A little later, Norway coach Ståle Solbakken, for his part, praised France as “perhaps the strongest in Europe,” and in the next phrase, as if fearing someone from another nation might take offense, noted: “But there are two other teams in the group.”
One of which won’t even be known for another three months.
Luis de la Fuente, who led Spain to Euro 2024, finds his team among the World Cup favorites, but insisted there is parity in the sport today.
Spain’s Group H includes Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, and Cape Verde.
“People think there are easy groups, but the level is very similar,” the coach said. “This will be a historic World Cup because there is an exceptional overall level. These games force you to play at your best.”
Players are also prone to this kind of talk.
U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams, speaking to reporters on a video call Friday, put it plainly: “There are no easy games in the World Cup.”
And he noted that during the last World Cup, when the United States was eliminated in the Round of 16, its two toughest games were “against two of the lesser opponents.”
