Copa America: Canada’s Jesse Marsch relishes semifinal clash with Argentina

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Canada coach Jesse Marsch said his team was relishing the chance to face world champion Argentina in the Copa America semifinals after Friday’s shock win over Venezuela.

The Canadians won 4-3 on penalties after the quarterfinal at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium ended 1-1 after 90 minutes.

Now the team playing in its first ever Copa America tournament has a chance to reach the final — if it can upset defending champion Argentina in New Jersey on Tuesday.

“We’re going to face the best team in the world in the semifinals. We’re excited about it,” Marsch said after Friday’s win. “We’re going to have to play the best game we can play against Argentina and even then it may not be enough,” he said.

But Marsch asserted the team “want to play the game of our lives.”

Canada lost 2-0 to Argentina in their opening group game.

Marsch, the former Leeds United manager, only took charge of Canada in mid-May but his impact was evident in a high-energy, hard pressing performance against Venezuela.

“We were the better team and we deserved to win,” said Marsch, whose team had been able to push Venezuela “to the limit.” “We believe more and more in ourselves and our confidence is growing.”

Venezuela coach Fernando Batista said his team, who had won all three of their group stage games, had enjoyed a positive tournament despite the loss.

“I leave with anger for losing on penalties, without losing a game in 90 minutes, but I leave proud of my players, who had a tremendous Copa America,” he said.

“The team has more and more character… we have to chew our cud and focus on (World Cup) qualification, which is our main objective, we’ll keep going forward,” he said.

Venezuela are the only South American team never to have qualified for a World Cup, but they are currently on course for a spot in the 2026 edition in the United States, Mexico and Canada, sitting in fourth place in Conmebol qualifiers.

Batista said he hadn’t underestimated Canada.

“I wasn’t surprised by Canada, because they were drawn in a very difficult group and finished above Peru and Chile and they competed against Argentina,” he said. “This is football and penalties sent us home.”

sev/rsc

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