June 26 – Canada fluffed their World Cup lines when they lost to Switzerland in their last group match, which also meant losing their home advantage for the last 32 knock out round.
“We’re exactly where we wanted to be – in the knockout phase,” said Canada’s all-American coach Jesse Marsch. The reality is that for Canadians, they aren’t where they wanted to be. They wanted to be in Vancouver, with their home support, and for an easier draw against a third placed group qualifier.
Their last 32 game on Sunday against South Africa in Hollywood Park’s SoFi stadium in Los Angeles is not just a deciding moment for the success of Canada’s World Cup hosting and playing odyssey, but also a ‘marmite moment’ for Marsch. You either love him or you hate him and currently his posturing and antics are increasingly leaving an unpleasant taste for many of the normally very patient and understanding Canadians.
A loss to South Africa could prompt Canada Soccer to take a leaf from their heavy handed immigration officials’ playbook who have in the past few weeks often attracted more global World Cup attention than the team has.
A once in a lifetime draw
The World Cup group draw was heavily weighted in favour of the three host nations and could not have been much kinder for Canada. The route to the last 16 looked very manageable for a team that can boast the playing quality they have within their ranks.
But under Marsch, Canada again look to be failing to deliver their potential. It had become a recurring theme in the pre-Marsch era of John Herdman, who did an outstanding job in developing the playing group into a top three Concacaf nation with the expectation that they could win regional titles … but never quite managing it.
At the 2022 World Cup Canada failed to win a group game but they came away having earned a genuine respect for their style and ability to play the game with the ball at their feet. Their domination of possession against a top three world ranked Belgium, who started the 2022 tournament as one of the favourites, won plaudits worldwide and promised greater things to come. That now feels like a very long time ago and the players who graced Qatar – and it was graceful – seem barely recognisable in the current set up.
What is most worrying for Canada is that the team doesn’t seem to be improving, and if anything has lost a significant chunk of its footballing identity. Canada has become just another hard running, hard tackling, do or die team. Is that really all this group of players are capable of?
Through the three games they have played in the World Cup, Marsch’s brand of full-on, helter skelter, hard pressing football hasn’t been convincing.
Canada opened the World Cup with a late goal to draw against a combative Bosnia and Herzogovina who only qualified through the play-offs. They followed this up with the emotion of the 6-0 beating of a very poor Qatar team that had been reduced to 10 men. Then followed the loss to the Swiss that brought down to earth the somewhat chaotic rollercoaster that has typified Marsch’s management.
A defining moment?
All is not necessarily lost. Canada will start as overwhelming favourites to beat South Africa and for Marsch, and potentially his Canadian future, winning is not negotiable.
South Africa are Canada’s fourth game of the tournament and the third team the Canadians will have played against opposition who would have probably not qualified for this World Cup if the format had not been expanded to 48 teams from 32. The one team that most likely would have qualified for a 32-team format, Switzerland, out thought, out fought and beat Marsch from the minute he chose not to play Alphonso Davies or start his best midfielder so far this tournament, Stephen Eustaquio.
Marsch will maintain that he had to build his programme pretty much from scratch. He entered a federation that had lost the confidence of its players, was short of cash and was struggling institutionally to keep up with its own ambitions.
But Canada Soccer was already on the mend and has pretty much sorted that institutional fumble out. New structures, better media, improved national programmes, and a believable commercial programme that will fund the whole game, and that the players have bought into, has brought a greater sense of purpose.
Marsch, who publicly stated (twice) that Canada’s organisation was “even worse than anything in Africa” – really Jesse, Africa, on what basis did you make that racial stereotyping assumption – has subsequently smelled the coffee and become a poster boy for Canada and its federation.
It is a federation that has been happy to let his excesses run riot and nowhere was that more in evidence than at the end of the Qatar game. Far from calming the aftermath of Ismael Kone’s horrible leg break, he turned himself into the centre of attention by igniting a post-match conflict between the two teams and their staff. It was as ugly as it was unnecessary.
Marsch is on a chunky salary of $2 million a year. Canada Soccer extended his contract just before the start of the World Cup through to the 2030 World Cup.
It is a salary that Canada Soccer couldn’t afford but is paid by a coalition of Canadian families, the two foundations of the MLS clubs in Vancouver and Montreal, and private investors, with support from the Canada Soccer foundation. They will want to see value for money, and that means making sure Canada is showcased in the best light possible at the biggest sports event in the world which they are co-hosting.
It is not clear whether there is a performance clause that could allow Jesse to be given his marching orders.
“I know our team has heart. We have a group that will give everything at every moment. It’s just about managing the little moments,” said Marsch. That really should go without saying and no-one watching Canada’s games would question that. What Marsch actually has is a very big moment to manage on Sunday, for Canada and himself.
At the Gold Cup in 2025 Marsch, now famously, went on a rant about coaches having plans all the way down to ‘double z’. Now would be a good time to pull one of them out.
Coaches don’t win games, but they can lose them.
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