Serious doubt cast on Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch's pre-World Cup claim

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.