GROVE CITY — C.J. Morgante ethically can’t make any predictions on the outcome 2014 World Cup.

For the past nine years, Morgante has served as a FIFA Assistant Referee on the U.S. International Panel and can’t talk about results of games.

That won’t stop him, along with many interested Butler County soccer fans, from setting up in front of his TV when the tournament starts at 4 p.m. Thursday in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

“I absolutely look forward to watching to see the American referees perform well,” said Morgante, who is a Grove City resident and volunteer track coach at Slippery Rock University. “I’m also interested to seeing how the U.S. is without Landon Donovan.”

Morgante, 40, hopes he will have an opportunity to referee at the 2018 Russia tournament.

Since starting refereeing at age 12, Morgante has worked 100 Major League Soccer games, 11 World Cup qualifiers and the U-17 World Cup in Nigeria.

Russia will be his last opportunity as FIFA doesn’t take officials past the age of 45. He came close to going to Brazil and South Africa.

CONCACAF, the federation that governs Caribbean and North American soccer nations, whittles down the pool of officials available to move on like it does teams.

“When you get selected to do another World Cup qualifier, based on performance you get selected to do another round,” Morgante said. “Finally, they cut it down to a short list of seven crews. For South Africa (in 2010), I was part of US crew they were considering. I made it to the final five and I was part of the crew they didn’t take.”

Two American referees — center referee Mark Geiger and assistant referee Sean Hurd — will work the tournament this year. No American referee has ever refereed in the center beyond the group stage.

Morgante enjoys the atmosphere at World Cup qualifiers, especially in South America.

“I love the Steelers, but their game day atmosphere is nothing compared to those,” Morgante said. “Security is tight, there are 750 military and riot police around the field. It will make the hair on your back stand up.”

Morgante, who did his undergraduate work and played soccer at Allegheny College, started refereeing for extra money.

Quickly, Morgante started to work his way up the ranks. His big break came when he officiated the Pittsburgh Riverhounds during their early days in the late 1990’s, when they were apart of the now-defunct A-League.

“It’s just like the players do. You go to academies and combines,” Morgante said. “You need to perform and do well in front of the right people to move on.”

Being able to advance, Morgante said, is broken down into a few factors. Age, fitness and performance.

Fellow Slippery Rock University track coach Bill Jordan helped train U.S. Soccer and the MLS officials for five seasons.

According to the U.S. Soccer Federation, referees run 12 miles during the game, which is five more than the players do.

“The biggest issue isn’t the distance,” Jordan said. “The average age of MLS players are between 23 and 24 and the average MLS official is between 35 and 36. The overall distance is hard, but doing repetitive sprints at 35 to keep up with someone who’s 23 is difficult.”

Training typically consists of 24 high-intensity runs of 30 seconds, which covers around 150 meters. Each run is followed by 30 to 40 seconds of rest.

Besides the on-field factors, having the right audience can help.

“You also need to have the right mentor to get you in front of the right people,” Morgante said.

Morgante is looking forward to doing some more traveling.

When the World Cup comes around again in four years, he doesn’t want to watch it on TV.

He’d rather be working it.