Inside the American Football World Cup camp at Orange County Great Park

On a recent spring morning, the championship football stadium, located in a corner of the large Orange County Park in Irvine, was quiet and empty, except for the dozen sprinklers dousing a newly laid carpet of turf.

Normally, the busy stadium is a bustle of activity. But its main tenant, the Orange County Soccer Club, which plays in the second division of the USL championship, was temporarily evicted and left to train in the nearby park and play its final home game before the World Cup at Eddie West Field in Santa Ana, 12 miles away. (That’s not necessarily a bad thing since the club drew a record crowd of 7,651 to its 3-2 win over Oakland on Saturday, keeping it in second place in the Western Conference standings.)

For the next month, the nine-year-old stadium will host just one occupant, the U.S. national soccer team, which has chosen the stadium as its primary training base for the World Cup. The temporary change in ownership is heralded by a giant orange orb the size of a hot air balloon, emblazoned with the US Soccer logo and attached to a rise just outside the stadium.

We do not know why and how the federation ended up in Irvine; US Soccer declined to respond to multiple requests for comment. But it’s safe to say location was a factor since Orange County Great Park is the closest World Cup training base to SoFi Stadium, where the United States will play two of its three group stage matches.

Crews work to prepare the U.S. soccer team’s training area at Championship Soccer Stadium in Irvine.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

The American team’s first training session, on June 8, will be the only one open to the public. Four days later, the team will open its World Cup schedule against Paraguay in Inglewood, a 45-mile bus ride away. The Americans are one of seven World Cup teams to have chosen their base camp in California. Australia and Paraguay will train in the Bay Area; Switzerland and New Zealand will be in San Diego; and Austria and Qatar will remain in Santa Barbara.

For the Orange County Soccer Club, which occupies a modest place in the American soccer landscape, even a temporary association with the World Cup and the national team is worth celebrating.

“How can you not be excited about training the host country at your facility when you are a club that prides itself on developing young talent,” said Dan Rutstein, the team’s president of business operations. “Sharing a stadium with the U.S. national team is a great opportunity.”

One that has great benefits. FIFA, which audited the location of World Cup teams a few years ago, replaced the stadium’s turf field with one the Orange County team could never have afforded for itself and will install security fencing within the next week, as it will at all 48 tournament practice fields. US Soccer is also expanding and improving the team’s small locker room and adding a media workroom.

Alvaro Leon, Brian Biniasz and Joesph Frausto install rubber flooring in the American Football World Cup locker room.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

The Orange County Soccer Club, however, pays for these advantages with some disadvantages. Players will have to dress at home for training which will take place in the adjoining park. And the club’s next six matches will all take place away. The team also had to remove any signs or placards mentioning the Orange County Football Club; they were replaced by USMNT signaling.

“This is their stadium now,” Rutstein said.

“If you look at what the club is trying to achieve and where we are as an organization, any short-term pain is more than outweighed by the medium- and long-term benefits of being associated with the World Cup and the US national team,” he added.

The team is trying to sell the naming rights to the stadium, for example, and its association with the national team and the World Cup could be a big help there.

When FIFA first revealed potential training venues for the World Cup two years ago, Championship Soccer Stadium was on the list and Rutstein said about a dozen national teams sent representatives to take a look. The number of auctions on the site is unknown, but FIFA rules state that if two or more teams bid on the same site, the team with the lowest FIFA world ranking gets first place.

The United States is ranked 16th, which clearly gives them an advantage.

An aerial view of teams preparing the U.S. Soccer team’s training area at Championship Soccer Stadium in Irvine.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Additionally, Orange County is no stranger to world-class soccer. The only other time the World Cup was held in the United States, in 1994, the U.S. team trained in Mission Viejo. And when European champion Paris Saint-Germain came to Southern California for the Club World Cup last summer, he trained at UC Irvine.

“Being away from the shine of a big city is appealing,” Rutstein said.

“The World Cup will do wonders for football in this country, as it did more than 30 years ago,” he continued. “And we’re excited to make the most of that growth.”

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