'Every team does it': How World Cup sides thwart opponents' spy efforts - ESPN

When they first found it, the U.S. men's national team loved everything about its FIFA World Cup training base.

Well, everything… except the giant balloon.

«The balloon is interesting,» a federation official mused last month, «but we really have to make sure that thing isn't running while we're actually practicing.»

The official wasn't kidding. The team is headquartered at Great Park in Irvine, California, and the Great Park Balloon, which resembles a massive (and probably delicious) mandarin orange, floats visitors as high as 400 feet in the air. With clear sightlines for miles around, the view from its basket is incredible.

And therein lies the problem.

While spying in soccer might only sporadically pop onto the casual fan's radar — like, say, when a top team gets caught using a drone to spy on its opponents during the Olympics, as happened with Canada in France two years ago — the idea that someone from the other team might be watching is a far more regular concern for many at the sport's highest levels. Numerous conversations with players, coaches and backroom staff ahead of this summer's World Cup affirmed that reality.

Put more simply: Soccer is full of people who are either (A) spying on someone; (B) actively worried that someone is spying on them; or © both.

It's already come up during this tournament: Mexican authorities «neutralized» an unidentified drone flying over South Korea's training session on June 16, and a few days later, U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino made a joke about looking for unwelcome observers when he was spotted taking a video up high on a hill before training.

«We're in the era of spies,» he said with a smile.

The list of high-profile past episodes is long and varied. As recently as a month