5 Things You Don't See at the World Cup

From a Marist Professor Reporting on the Inside

From player tunnels to press rooms, Schaerlaeckens will report on the moments most fans never see. “The raw emotion of the tournament is always sort of moving to me,” he said. 

That proximity offers a perspective few can match—and one he will translate in real time for campus audiences. “I’m always taken aback by the enormity of it,” he said. “Tens of thousands of people gather. There’s a remarkable energy to the thing that I can’t possibly describe. And you get to sit right in the middle of that.”

This year’s World Cup also places a spotlight on the U.S. men’s national team, which Schaerlaeckens sees as uniquely positioned. “This team is deeper, more talented and more pedigreed than any incarnation of the U.S. men's national team before it,” he said.

“Imagine spending your entire life trying to get to this place, and then all of it unspools in the course of no more than a month.”

- Professor Leander Schaerlaeckens

Watch and Listen to Professor Schaerlaeckens' World Cup Media Appearances

That perspective is also at the heart of his book, The Long Game: U.S. Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, which chronicles the turbulent, often improbable rise of men’s soccer in the United States. Drawing on decades of reporting and insider access, the book traces the sport’s evolution from obscurity to global relevance, examining the personalities, setbacks, and turning points that shaped the program—context that makes the 2026 World Cup and the current U.S. squad especially significant.

The experience comes back to the classroom. Schaerlaeckens has already integrated World Cup content into his teaching and will carry those insights into the fall semester. “It will inform everything I teach anew, transmitting my experiences out in the field to the classroom,” he said.