Just about every day here in South Korea, you can bet on two things: 1) That I'll sleep too late and blow off my own workout, and 2) That I'll be going out to some team's camp to take in a little training action.
Which makes you feel even worse, watching all those sprints.
Each country's training regimens are at once different and the same. The day after every match, appropriately, the players usually just put on their running shoes, do some light jogging, listen to their coach, answer a few questions from the media and leave the soccer ball alone.
The second day, players do a fair amount of fitness work and some rather serious and game-like action as players battle each other to win any open spots in the next match's roster.
How a team conducts training varies from coach to coach, and from media manager to media manager. FIFA has adopted a rule that allows for a team to close one training session completely per match, but all other sessions are to be open for at least 15 minutes.
Of course, most teams see that as ONLY 15 minutes.
And usually, before or after practice, players give interviews. Some teams put out just a few players on any given day; some are more open to specific requests.
Each team has a public relations director (and often a cadre of media people) whose tough task is to please both the inquiring media and the organization he or she is representing. Some players love the attention; some are happy with it as part of their job; some don't want to be bothered; and some coaches don't want anyone excessively bothering their footballers. With all of these factors -- and many in between -- the PR folks and media are in a constant polite tug of war.
The success of a team during the tournament is an interesting study in media relations. Players, coaches and staff are always more eager to talk when they're exceeding general expectations. But the more a team succeeds, the number of journalists wanting to talk to the players grows. The converse isn't exactly true, as the more a team fails, that same number of media want to talk, but the players are much more reluctant.
The U.S. team has a unique situation at this World Cup. Sure, they'd like to be as open as possible, but safety issues are of utmost importance. Teams of security personnel, visible and invisible, watch every move -- as it should be. But from my perspective, and what the players have said, there's not been any noticeable inconvenience.
Of course, every team has a high level of security, as we've noticed with France, England, Argentina, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Senegal, Costa Rica, South Korea, Ireland and Portugal. Hey, that's 11 different teams in 12 days. Not too bad.
Joe McCurdy
World Sport
