After just getting by Trinidad and Tobago in a play-in game, the best group of players in Canadian soccer history are back in a major tournament for the second time in two years. Their first challenge? The small matter of world champions Argentina, and a certain Lionel Messi…
How to follow Euro 2024 and Copa America on The Athletic…
The Manager
With a little over a month to go before Copa America, Canada finally hired a full-time coach after former boss John Herdman’s departure in August 2023.
Jesse Marsch emerged from a group of final candidates for the position that included Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Because of Canada Soccer’s ongoing financial difficulties, the federation received donations from Canada’s three MLS teams to help fund Marsch’s hire. His formal title is “MLS Canada Men’s National Team Head Coach”.
Marsch has experience with various Red Bull sides including New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig. In Austria, he led Salzburg to back-to-back Champions League appearances for the first time in the club’s history.
The emphatic and passionate Marsch most recently spent just over a year in charge of Leeds United, helping them avoid relegation in 2022. He was sacked in February 2023.
While he has often shifted preferred formations, Marsch is very much a product of the Red Bull school. He sets up his team to press in all areas of the pitch, plans to attack on the counter and requires consistent energy from nearly all of his players. How that approach plays out on short notice with Canada will be one of the storylines to follow at Copa America.
Jesse Marsch will become the next head coach of Canada Soccer’s Men’s National Team🇨🇦
Now, the work begins!#CANMNT pic.twitter.com/LqiLKJ1tea
— CANMNT (@CANMNT_Official) May 13, 2024
The household name you haven’t heard of yet
Buchanan was Canada’s best player during the 2022 World Cup and the winger’s electric performances on the ball were a driving factor in his winter transfer to eventual Italian champions Inter Milan. His elite assist for Canada’s first-ever World Cup goal doesn’t get the credit it deserves and he led all Canadian players in non-penalty expected goals plus assists per 90 minutes (0.48), suggesting he can raise his game when it matters.
The 25-year-old doesn’t always get the recognition Davies and David do in Canada and started the game at a younger age than many of his peers. Buchanan then spent five years out of the limelight at the New England Revolution and Belgium’s Club Bruges, making fewer Champions League appearances than both Davies and David.
But when he has the ball at his feet, he has the guile and the confidence to almost always create daring chances towards the goal. That aggressiveness means he can sometimes be caught out of defensive positioning, sure, but in Marsch’s system built on speed, Buchanan and his skills could thrive.
Tajon Buchanan with the Serie A trophy (Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)Strengths
Team speed and vibes… if they can find them again. Part of the reason the appointment of Marsch makes some sense is how many of Canada’s core players play with pace and relentlessness moving forward. Canada ran Belgium into the ground in their 2022 World Cup opener but didn’t get the deserved result.
Davies tied for the top speed in the Bundesliga this season (36.4km/hour), Buchanan hit a top speed of just over 35km/hour at the 2022 World Cup, while Alistair Johnston, Ismael Kone and Richie Laryea all use high-end motors to attack from different areas of the pitch. They should be able to transfer those skills into Marsch’s system. With heightened tactical instruction, Canada’s speed will be pivotal to incisive counter-attacks against Argentina and Peru.
Now, it’s worth arguing that Canada already understood how to play pacy, counter-attack-driven soccer. Perhaps a manager who could have taught them to be more methodical in possession might have allowed them to become flexible against different opponents and in fairness to Marsch and Canada, they looked adaptable and organized against France in a pre-Copa friendly as opposed to the relentless style they showcased days earlier against the Netherlands.
So it’s fair to expect the Canada team that ran until their legs gave out at the World Cup to re-emerge at some point during Copa America.
And, look, it’s worth mentioning the team’s vibes because of how far those vibes drove the team ahead of the 2022 World Cup. You could have made a case that Canada was a team for neutrals to get behind. They had young, marketable stars, appeared buoyant and excited with every camp and insisted their “Brotherhood” of an ego-free team was the secret to their success. The vibes, as the kids would say, were immaculate.
Are they a more hardened outfit, after a year and a half of capitulations, losses and squabbling with Canada Soccer over a contract? You would think so. But a new coach never short on energy and another opportunity to surprise is in front of them. It’s worth wondering if this team can remember how playing free of burdens and expectations propelled them in 2021 and 2022 and put them on the map in Canadian public consciousness.
It’s simple and slightly naive, but the more fun this Canadian team has, the better their results seem to be.
Canada after their World Cup loss to Morocco (Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images)Weaknesses
Canada’s centre-backs have long been a blemish on a team that otherwise has all the pieces to excite. The position is in a state of transition. After years of relying heavily on ageing but slow-ish veterans, turnover is necessary. It’s just come at an inopportune time ahead of a major tournament.
Steven Vitoria started every game for Canada at the World Cup and is no longer in the squad, as did Kamal Miller, but his club form has levelled off.
While Canada has players featuring regularly in top-flight competitions across Europe at midfield, full-back, winger and forward, all of their centre-backs log consistent minutes in North America and mid-tier European leagues. That shouldn’t be an indication of their talent, as it’s possible to see the likes of Derek Cornelius and Moise Bombito in better European leagues soon enough. Both looked capable of elevating their game in recent friendlies against the Netherlands and France.
But what it does indicate? Canadians higher up the pitch are used to playing against heightened competition, whereas the centre-backs are not. The minutes being earned by centre-backs without plenty of experience for Canada should benefit the team come 2026 when they will co-host the World Cup.
Thing you didn’t know
Canada has previously won a competitive tournament with South American teams. Really!
The Gold Cup has long been the most notable CONCACAF tournament. Predictably, the United States and Mexico have reigned supreme. From 1996 to 2005, the tournament invited various international teams, largely from CONMEBOL, to participate. In 2000, CONCACAF invited three teams from outside the region for the first and only time. And in one of the most improbable stories in Canadian sports history, Canada won that tournament.
Comprised largely of players from Scotland and England’s lower leagues and coached by former West Germany assistant Holger Osieck, Canada was given little chance to advance out of their group. It took a literal coin-toss win to break a tie in the standings between Canada and South Korea for Canada to move onto the knockout round.
Playing a defensively sturdy style built on set-piece strength, Canada faced Mexico in the quarter-final. Down 1-0 in the 83rd minute, Canada secured an improbable golden-goal win over the giants of the region. It would be their lone win over Mexico for 21 years and led to calls from a longtime English manager wondering why his goalkeeper hadn’t returned from international duty.
“(Then West Ham United manager Harry Redknapp) was phoning me daily to try to find out when I’d be coming back. ‘What? You won again?’. ‘What? You won a coin toss?’. He was just fuming. He was telling me to get back there. ‘What do you mean you beat Mexico? You never beat Mexico. What the hell is going on over there?’,” then Canada and West Ham goalkeeper Craig Forrest told The Athletic.
Canada then marched to an unlikely 2-0 win in the final over a Colombia team considered among the world’s best. “I remember the look on (then CONCACAF president Jack Warner’s) face as he handed us the trophy. He was disgusted,” then Canada defender Jason de Vos said.
Canada has not beaten a team from CONMEBOL since that win.
Canada after beating Colombia at the Gold Cup final in 2000 (Mike Nelson/AFP/Getty Images)Expectations back home
Remember when Canada’s men’s national team were one of the most energetic and likeable teams around the world? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stopped a Canada training session to get in on the fun. After years of Canada Soccer having to pay broadcast networks to get men’s team games on TV (seriously!), one of Canada’s two sports networks picked up qualifying games. To paraphrase broadcaster Bob Cole, “Everything was happening!”
The wave of optimism Canada rode during 2022 World Cup qualifying crashed hard in Qatar. In the year or so afterwards, the team and Canada Soccer have struggled to build up that wave again – continued losses and public bickering between the team and the federation will do that. That Canada was forced into a play-in game against Trinidad and Tobago has certainly dampened the enthusiasm surrounding their fortunes this summer.
Add it up and Canada will enter this tournament with some of the most dangerous attacking talent but are not expected to get out of their group. On paper, they should challenge Peru for a result and set themselves up for a must-win game against Chile. A historic 0-0 draw against France in their final pre-Copa America friendly saw Marsch’s team play organized and mature as opposed to relying solely on their speed. That rightfully injected the team with confidence.
There’s reason to be optimistic, but in Canada, you wouldn’t know it. The kind of public campaigns before the World Cup are nowhere to be seen this year.
If Canada falter again at a major tournament, they’re at risk of falling back into the space they inhabited for so long: largely forgotten about by the mainstream Canadian public.
(Artwork: John Bradford. Photos: Getty; Matthew Ashton, Ethan Miller)
Source link : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5522135/2024/06/13/canada-copa-america-2024-squad-guide/
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Publish date : 2024-06-13 07:01:01
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