KANSAS CITY – For his entire life, whether at school or at countless sporting events, Jesse Marsch would stand at attention, hold his hand over his heart in a way millions of other Americans would, and sing the Star Spangled Banner.
But today in the heart of the United States, against the American national team for whom he once played, Marsch will be singing a different tune.
“I’m singing the Canadian national anthem,” Marsch said ahead of the friendly between Canada and the USMNT.
Perhaps that’s because the team he now coaches is looking more like the ones he grew up playing for.
“I’m proud to be the coach of this national team,” Marsch said. “And I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that I empower these guys to be as good as they can possibly be, that this sport evolves in the country and continues to grow, and use my experience to help everybody try to be at their best.”
Marsch and his coaching staff sing the Canadian national anthem (Omar Vega/Getty Images)
It’s a turn few could have seen coming just over a year ago.
Midway through 2023, Marsch was considered one of the frontrunners for the USMNT’s head coach job and Canada were still developing their own identity under John Herdman as up-and-comers in CONCACAF.
That feels like ancient history.
In just a few months, Marsch has taken Canada to the semifinals of Copa America, their best result in a competitive tournament. But his first game coaching against the U.S. presents a chance to reflect on how Marsch has transformed Canada’s men’s national team by — in part — instilling some of the stereotypical values that can be found in the team he’ll face for the first time.
“I want their Canadian-ness to come through,” Marsch said. “But the one thing I do feel with the group is there’s swagger.”
Marsch smiled and chuckled at the question: why is he coaching the Canadian team today instead of the American one he is set to face?
“Because they didn’t hire me,” he said.
It’s not like Marsch wasn’t close to the U.S. job. He interviewed before the position eventually went to Gregg Berhalter. Afterwards, Marsch let his feelings be known.
“My respect for U.S. Soccer is big, but I went through a process with them, right? And I’m not going to go into it, but I wasn’t treated very well in the process,” Marsch told CBS’ Call it What You Want podcast in May.
That process has come back into frame as Marsch prepares to face the U.S. for the first time.
“Look, they have their reasons why,” Marsch said about not getting hired for the U.S. job. “In the end, I’m glad because I don’t think I’d be as happy coaching the U.S. team as I am coaching this team. I think these guys resonate with my idea of football, my idea of life; the idea of togetherness, selflessness. These guys embody all those things in spades.”
Marsch has quickly adapted to his new gig, even if it didn’t feel like it was supposed to be this way.
In August 2023, Canada Soccer was still reeling. Herdman forced his way out of the organization after coaching a team to their first men’s World Cup appearance in 36 years.
Soccer — and its infrastructure — in Canada continued to rise. There were strong, tactically astute and impressive coaches either from Canada or being developed in Canada in the Canadian Premier League who deserved to be part of the conversation for the next national team coach. Bobby Smyrniotis, Tommy Wheeldon Jr and Pa-Modou Kah were among them.
International coaches of repute including Thierry Henry were also considered. That list included Marsch.
During the hiring process, you didn’t have to put your ear to the door to hear whispers throughout Canadian soccer circles: in terms of the optics, was hiring an American the best move for this team?
For generations, the classic Canadian inferiority complex existed within Canada’s men’s national team, too. They lived in the shadow of their counterparts to the south. Hosting the World Cup in 1994 helped chart a path forward for the sport and the men’s team in the U.S. Money was invested into soccer in a way it wasn’t in Canada. American players flocked to European leagues, while Canadian players might report to camps without club affiliations, well, anywhere.
It is rare for the American men’s national team to line up against an opponent as underdogs. They made it out of the group stage in all three of the last World Cups for which they qualified and lost only one group stage game in that time: in 2014 to eventual champions, Germany.
Between 1985 and 2019, the USMNT went undefeated in 17 straight games against Canada.
That’s what made Canada’s October 2019 Nations League win over the U.S. so historic. It was followed by one of Canada’s most seminal wins in program history: in frigid Hamilton, Ontario, temperatures in January 2022, Canada bested the USMNT with a 2-0 win in World Cup qualifying.
For the first time, Canada didn’t seem to cower in the face of their more dominant neighbours.
“Now when they come to us, or we go there, they’re scared,” then-Canadian goalkeeper Milan Borjan said after the game.
Kamal Miller celebrates as the USMNT are beaten at BMO Field (John Dorton/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
But Canada still positioned themselves as an underdog in the 2022 World Cup. Canada’s poor showing in Qatar was the beginning of the end of Herdman’s tenure and evidence that change was needed within the program. Canada was full of talent and athleticism, but aggression was not a constant in their game.
Maybe, just maybe, adopting the kind of stereotypical American values — unyielding confidence, asserting physical dominance to shift results — wouldn’t be the worst thing for the Canadian teams.
Kevin Blue took over as Canada Soccer general secretary in February 2024. Hiring a new men’s team head coach was his top priority. Part of what he identified in talking with the hundreds of people throughout Canadian soccer after his hire was that the men’s national team needed more fight, more grit, more tenacity. More, essentially, of the intangible qualities that can separate great teams who don’t fold in pressure-packed tournaments and teams that wilt when they go down a goal.
International soccer, of course, lacks the “Ah, we’ll get ’em next time” mentality that can exist in club soccer. There, losses can sometimes be treated as learning experiences in a long season. Internationally, one lost game can be the difference between an organization pulling in millions of dollars in prize money or multiple people losing their jobs.
Enter Marsch, who Blue persuaded to take the job.
Part of what Blue saw was someone who could raise the level of pride, intensity and audacity within the team.
“Are they too likeable in some ways? Yes,” Marsch described his team to OneSoccer ahead of Copa America. “I found Canadians to be very amicable and respectful and kind and that’s great. But that doesn’t always make the best football team, right?”
Marsch was originally taken aback at how politely his Canadian players sometimes received criticism and information about their playing time. He had come from an environment where players were used to fighting for their positions and would react with hostility when things didn’t go their way. It was a sign of a player wanting desperately to fight for their spot in the squad.
But his Canadian players didn’t respond that way early in his tenure.
Marsch wanted to see more nastiness. More pride that would manifest in confidence to change a game. He wanted his players to start barking back. Both at him and at the rest of the world. He challenged them with the kind of physicality in training sessions they’d rarely experienced.
In short, Marsch wanted more of the kind of traits Canadians didn’t always show against American neighbours who often did. Marsch had seen enough talent in his ranks to ask his team openly: “Why should we think of ourselves as the underdogs any longer?”
Marsch instructs his Canada players (Perry McIntyre/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
He encouraged his players to hold themselves in a higher esteem and elevate their games both at home and abroad. Less plucky, more Alpha.
“Screw that, let’s go at these teams,” Canada defender Alistair Johnston remembers Marsch telling his new team ahead of Copa America.
Johnston described Marsch’s style as “Rock and roll, Red Bull-drinking, here we go, go on the front foot and punch you in the mouth and there’s not going to be any pleasantries.” That sounds like the antithesis of a nation that generally prides itself on its politeness. It was a style players craved.
“I think that fits us like a glove,” Johnston said.
In gritty Copa America wins over Peru and Venezuela and a resolute performance against World Cup champions Argentina that should have yielded a different result, Canada showed elevated levels of self-confidence. They looked like a CONCACAF team who could go head-to-head with South American sides in a way that previously only the U.S. and Mexico could.
“We played with arrogance and that’s something that Jesse brought in,” Johnston said.
Now, as Canada expect to play the USMNT more and more through 2025 (a lack of 2026 World Cup qualifiers for both nations makes it a foregone conclusion), Marsch will try to continue to coax more swagger out of his team.
Marsch is intent on coaxing more swagger from Canada (Omar Vega/Getty Images)
Marsch, of course, is not afraid of speaking his mind. How many coaches would state, days before playing a team for the first time, that they would win with a very specific scoreline? That’s the kind of swagger and arrogance Marsch wants to see more of from his players given how much they’ve improved as of late.
“We need to elevate the status of (Canada Soccer),” Marsch said on the Golazo podcast.
By looking and sounding more and more like the team they’re set to face, Marsch is seeing his team do just that. Canada’s loss to the USMNT in the 2023 Nations League final was humbling. They hardly showed the necessary levels of self-confidence to compete in a final. And, to this day, many members of the national team have been seeking revenge against the U.S.
Or, at the very least, to show how they can try to beat the Americans at their own game.
“The U.S. has established itself as the best team in the region, even though Canada won the qualifying group for the World Cup stage,” Marsch said. “I still think that everyone knows that with the resources, with the size of the country, with the establishment of what the sport has been in the United States, that this is a big measuring stick for us.”
(Top photo: Omar Vega/Getty Images)
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