What a joyous Sunday for the American football family. A rare one too. Has an international fanbase ever celebrated two sudden-death wins in the space of four sweet hours?
In a bitter Canadian irony, the only man inside the US Bank Stadium who could have spelled and pronounced schadenfreude on demand was the one on the end of it.
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Jesse Marsch and Canada limped away from the cavernous Minneapolis arena with enough regrets and concerns to have filled the place, not hanging around to see Mauricio Pochettino’s side handle the pressure of a penalty shootout when they’d crumbled. The in-person and very online American support revelled in all of it.
Exiting the Gold Cup at the hands of the 106th-ranked team in the world had instant impacts, stealing Canada’s chance to end a quarter-century trophy drought but more importantly robbing Marsch and his players of the last remaining meaningful matches a year out from the World Cup.
“I’m disappointed,” said captain Jonathan David, who’d ran himself ragged against the gleeful Guatemalans. “It’s a game we had in our hands and it fell apart.”
More than that, this was a crucial month that fell apart, leaving plenty of questions …
Failing to deliver on promise and pressure
This June window was going to last eight games. Marsch and his players had assured the Canadian public of as much. A run to the Gold Cup final on Sunday was the bare minimum. They didn’t reach it. Having failed to fulfill similar promises in March’s Nations League finals, Canada’s trophy-less run since 2000 will now stretch to the World Cup.
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There was a little mitigation, Marsch missing three sure starters in Alphonso Davies, Moise Bombito and Steph Eustaquio. Yet the manager had been effusive about having as strong a panel as possible as he set the highest targets. The quarter-final turned on a red card but Canada had enough talent to have managed that moment – and many more.
“We lost because we beat ourselves, and we can’t do that in important matches,” said Marsch. “We certainly can’t do that next summer.”
The month ended with just six games, not eight. Canada turned up in just two of them, a friendly trouncing of Ukraine and the Gold Cup opener against Honduras. Otherwise things were underwhelming and insipid. The team went its separate ways with more issues than when they’d got together in late May.
Lost in the red and white mist
Amid heightened off-field tensions, Marsch has proven an able Canadian diplomat. More parochially, his pettiness around all things US Soccer has been delightfully packaged for the audience north of the border. This, ultimately, is mere window dressing.
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Now in a rapid reversal of the stuff that matters most, the US are rising out of a funk while Canada find themselves at their lowest ebb under the American. And temperament is a huge part of the problem.
Jacob Shaffelburg’s rash red card before half-time in Minneapolis turned the tide Guatemala’s way. It was a first Canadian dismissal in almost 40 matches but it was absolutely coming. Marsch has demanded that his team play with an edge, harking to hockey terminology. But they’ve also lived on the edge. In March the manager went over it with a touchline meltdown that earned a two-game ban. Yet he continued to lash Concacaf at regular intervals.
Canadian cattiness is wearing thin when the players are letting emotions sway results. Against El Salvador and Guatemala, opposition aggression and cynicism dragged down a team clearly superior on paper.
Maturity comes in other forms. That it was 19-year-old center-back Luc de Fougerolles stepping up for a decisive sudden-death spot kick Sunday when veteran full backs Alistair Johnston and Richie Laryea stayed back felt off too.
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This time next year, enormous pressure will descend on the co-host nation. Somewhere in the next 12 months, they must find control and a way to tread more nimbly along their edges.
Selections and subs need serious work
Handling emotions on a foreign Concacaf field can be a vexing thing. We know that. Marsch and his management team are on the other side of the white lines and paid handsomely to find calm amid chaos.
Yet team selection and substitutions have wavered from muddled to messy this month. Sunday felt like the culmination of that. Down to 10 men but a goal to the good against a team sandwiched between Comoros and Tanzania in the world rankings, Marsch bizarrely opted to introduce attacker Daniel Jebbison on the left wing. Untested and utterly unconvincing thus far in his international career, Jebbison foundered. Bringing a third midfielder in to help lock down the middle felt the far smarter move, but Marsch instead prioritized his press.
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Just 12 months removed from a Copa América campaign where he’d emerged as the team’s driving dynamic heart, it was striking that Ismaël Koné sat ignored on the bench.
Earlier in the tournament the manager vociferously snapped back at an English journalist who’d inquired as to whether Canada had a ‘plan B’ other than being a pressure team. “We have plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D, all the way up to plan double-Z,” he replied. Sunday’s circumstances surely called for one of those alternatives.
There must also be concern about favoritism for clearly out-of-form options. Marsch values Cyle Larin’s leadership but the veteran was invisible against Ivory Coast and brought nothing as a Gold Cup substitute before also missing a key penalty. Like Jebbison and plenty of others of late, he felt like the wrong move at the wrong time Sunday.
Dayne St Clair’s inability to turn MLS penalty prowess into anything decisive for country has only added to perhaps the biggest issue in Marsch’s line-up. Now 21 games into his tenure, he has no idea who his starting goalkeeper is.
Saliba, Sigur and moments of Promise
As is his prerogative but also preset factory mode, Marsch immediately tried to push away from negatives in the moments after an ignominious exit. “I’m still very positive on this group,” he said. “We made a lot of progress with a lot of players.”
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Amid what was ultimately collective failure, this month did witness some individual emergence. Nathan Saliba swapped CF Montreal for Anderlecht mid-Gold Cup, the transfer a tangible confirmation of the international strides the midfielder has been making. Another who shined, Niko Sigur, may not be waiting long for his step up from Hajduk Split, Atalanta a possible destination. Utility man Sigur shone at right back and then showed flashes of what he offers in midfield.
Promise David rounded off a breakout club campaign with an international debut and two goals in his first two caps. The Union Saint-Gilloise target man clearly offers plenty, some of it unpredictable. Marsch, alas, values predictability, but having compared David’s breakneck growth to that of Erling Haaland, may need to trust him more.
Penalty woes aside, teenager De Fougerolles looked assured and classy in defence, an ongoing area of need. So, yes, as the dust and Guatemalan fiesta settles there are reasons for some Canadian cheer. Marsch will reconvene with his players in Europe in early September for friendlies against Romania and Wales. A pair of October dates, likely both with South American opposition, follow.
Having spurned such a priceless opportunity for two more high-stakes games this week, it’s now friendlies all the way to next June. Marsch has insisted he’ll make them meaningful. With much to be done, he needs to make them count.
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