The beautiful game takes center stage Friday and while the World Cup seems more of a global game with an impact that transcends your neighborhood, your local youth league and even your WVU, it’s truly a time when it might affect all three.

So says, so hopes Marlon LeBlanc, who at 34 years of age would like to be coaching quite a bit longer and ride the wave and reap the benefits of soccer’s growing popularity in the U.S.

“Plenty of professional players play college soccer now, albeit not all of them for four years because some decide to play soccer in the professional leagues, but college does help bridge the gap now,” LeBlanc said. “Most of the kids who get here now have aspirations of being pros when in the past it was not as clear-cut.

“Now there’s a legitimate league in the United States paying salaries that are still not at the level players make in Europe, but certainly at a level where they can consider going pro and making $60,000, $70,000, $75,000 a year and working their way up to those big six- or seven-figure contracts.”