KU soccer coach Nate Lie sold on World Cup experiences in Lawrence and KC
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- KU coach Nate Lie said the World Cup and local soccer interest could help recruiting.
- Algeria trained at Rock Chalk Park and used the DoubleTree as its headquarters.
- Lie noted Kansas City hosted four teams and all four advanced to the Round of 32.
With all five decked out in Team USA/World Cup soccer gear, Kansas coach Nate Lie, wife Emily and children Michael, Grace and Joshua loaded luggage into the family truckster early Wednesday morning in advance of a 10-hour drive to Cincinnati for Fourth of July fun with relatives and friends.
“That’s where we lived before we moved to KU,” said the former Xavier women’s soccer coach, set to begin his third year at KU.
“We tried to time our departure and get out of the house — which isn’t easy for us — early enough so we could get to Cincinnati to watch the game tonight,” Lie added in a phone interview conducted as the Lie family proceeded down I-70 East.
The game referenced was Team USA’s 8 p.m. Eastern World Cup Round of 32 match against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Santa Clara, California.
Team USA’s 2-0 victory was must-see TV for the Lies.
“This is something we’ve all prioritized,” Lie said. “I’ve been following the national team since I was a young player (in hometown of Cleveland). Through all iterations, ups and downs, this is the best team we’ve had top to bottom with high-end talent.
“I think this generation of (Christian) Pulisic and (Tyler) Adams and (Weston) McKennie … they all were around last World Cup and it was supposed to be the run. It wasn’t, but I think they got some of those battle scars from the disappointment, which sometimes you need to experience.”
Lie was referring to Team USA losing to the Netherlands 3-1 in the 2022 Round of 16.
“It hardens you and makes you understand the sacrifice you’ve got to have out there,” Lie added. “This is the best combination I’ve seen of talent and progressive play. I think in the past we sort of survived on just being more physical and willing to kind of muck up the game.
“This team can play, and can actually dictate terms of the game with the ball more than any kind of version of U.S. soccer that I’ve seen.”
And there’s more to come.
“There’s a lot of pressure. It’s tough being the favorite. It’s tough having those expectations. Presumably anyone else we play going forward, it’d be against some of those big names of soccer,” the 48-year-old Lie continued of Team USA’s possible path to the finals.
Next up for America is a Round of 16 match against Belgium at 7 p.m. Central on Monday in Seattle.
“I really want to see this team go up against those kind of countries (Belgium and potentially Spain the round after), because it felt like in the past the gap was huge and I tend to think it’s narrowed a ton,” Lie stated. “I think we can play with those countries and give them all of their worth, especially with home crowds going to be insane behind this team.”
For the record, he noted France “with its insane firepower” just might be the team to beat even more so than odds-on pre-tourney betting favorite Spain.
The five members of the Lie family, like many other individuals who live in Lawrence, are also following the fortunes of Algeria’s national team. Algeria, which plays Switzerland in a Round of 32 match at 10 p.m. Thursday in Vancouver, Canada, held its training camp in Lawrence from June 8-30.
The Algerian team practiced at KU’s Rock Chalk Park, home of Lie’s Jayhawks, while choosing the DoubleTree hotel as its headquarters.
Lawrence natives made the visitors — off to a 1-1-1 start in the tourney — feel welcome by wearing Team Algeria shirts and scarves and also waving the Algerian flag during watch parties for three games in downtown Lawrence. Fans also greeted the visitors upon their arrival to town after midnight June 8 and waved goodbye to the players on the bus upon their final departure on Tuesday.
Lie, who was able to present Walid Sadi, president of the Algerian Football Federation, a KU jersey during a final practice at Rock Chalk Park, said it was special having the Algerians in town using KU’s facilities in west Lawrence.
“I think the story of Algeria and Lawrence, and that that sort of coming together of cultures, has gone way more viral than I thought. And a lot of my friends and family around the country have reached out about it, referenced it. So I think that’s incredibly neat,” said Lie, who headed downtown with his wife one day to purchase Algeria jerseys for the family. The two also attended both of Algeria’s games in KC.
Lie said it remains to be seen how much having a World Cup team in town for so long helps KU in recruiting high school soccer players. Currently, the recruiting cycle is in a period in which recruits haven’t been able to make campus visits.
“(We can) send them videos of Rock Chalk Park and also are pretty quick to mention that Algeria was using it for World Cup base camp. I think that gives it automatic credibility,” Lie said of KU’s facility.
“It would seem to be tough to have a better selling point for a home facility than a national country in the World Cup wants your facility,” Lie added. “It would be tough to have a better proof of concept or credibility. If it’s good enough for FIFA, it’s good enough for college. That’s for sure.”
Lie and the KU players didn’t spend much time with the visitors at Rock Chalk Park.
“Understandably, they run a pretty tight ship. Biggest sporting event in the world, you only get one crack in it every four years. So security was pretty tight,” Lie said. “I was out there twice. I went out for the community event (at a packed Rock Chalk Park) with my entire family. I was there as a fan and like everyone else in the community super impressed and moved by how Lawrence got behind that team and how they opened the doors to the community.
“Another cool part of it for me personally was two of our three kids participated in the clinic afterward where the players and some of the coaches went over and kicked around with them and signed autographs, took pictures. ...
“I actually went out (to the facility) with Jason Booker (KU’s deputy AD for external affairs and revenue generation) to do a jersey exchange with the president of their soccer association. We got to catch a little bit of the end of training.”
Lie said he’s grown as a coach just watching the World Cup games that have been played at Kansas City Stadium (Arrowhead) and on TV.
“This is a unique opportunity for us to see how tactics have evolved over the last four years,” Lie said. “Not every country is made the same. So when some of the powers like France or Spain or England are playing teams that don’t have the exact firepower … to see teams maybe undermanned tactically hang in the match and figure out how to be opportunistic is really (interesting). We as coaches are always watching new trends emerging in soccer and how the game is growing and evolving. If we aspire here to go to the Final Four and compete and accomplish things we want to accomplish … if we aspire to do great things, this is all part of it.”
He said Kansas City, which played host to four teams that all advanced to the Round of 32 (Algeria, Argentina, the Netherlands, England) deserves a title of “Soccer Capital of America.”
“I think there would probably be a couple cities that would want to be in that conversation and there’d be a lively debate that’s ensued, but I don’t think it’s out of bounds at all to say that, right?” he said. “I think we’re the only city that hosted four World Cup teams — all four advanced, by the way. So we must be a good luck charm.
“I think if you look at the videos ... Fox isn’t getting paid extra to show Kansas City watch parties and there’s been a lot of talk that Kansas City gets shown the most down at Power and Light. I think that partly is because it’s always so packed. Our fan fest is so well attended and I believe I saw our viewership numbers are by far the best in the country. It’s been great to see the way Lawrence and Kansas City have embraced it all.”
