Salomón Rondón caught Crépeau out of the box for a massive equalizer 🤯 pic.twitter.com/GWZU4njLnm
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 6, 2024
Salomón Rondón caught goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau shockingly far away from his own goal and scored with a lob from 39 meters.
The momentum continued to sway back and forth, and Venezuela was never punished for particularly physical play in the box. (For the match, they were called for only seven fouls, with no yellow cards.) But Canada continued to create better scoring opportunities and eventually held their nerve to win in penalties.
The chaos probably didn’t bother Marsch much. The former RB Salzburg, RB Leipzig and Leeds United manager is known for an up-tempo style, and Canada’s two wins in this tournament have now come in matches in which they had 104 (vs. Peru) and 117 (vs. Venezuela) possessions. (The tournament average: 85 possessions per match.) They’ve now averaged 94 possessions, second in the tournament to only Venezuela, and their direct speed (how quickly you’re moving the ball vertically in a given sequence) of 2.1 meters per second is easily the highest.
This is, of course, a style Marsch could be implementing with the United States men’s national team at the moment. He was turned down for the job last summer when the U.S. elected to rehire Gregg Berhalter, and Marsch didn’t hide his disappointment.
Jesse Marsch’s Canada becomes the third Concacaf team to advance to the semifinals in their Copa América debut. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)
“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. “And so, whatever man, that’s in the past now. […] It motivated me again to find the right people.”
Marsch was somewhere between candid and catty earlier this week when he shared his thoughts on the struggles of the U.S. in the Copa América. “Obviously I’m paying attention to the U.S. men’s national team as I always do, and like you, I’m sad,” he told Fox. “I’m disappointed with the performances, the lack of discipline.”
His Canadian team lacked discipline at times on Friday night, too, but they got the job done. And their reward is a rematch with Argentina.
Canada fell 2-0 to the world champions in the opening match of the tournament; Marsch attempted to keep things contained with a pretty conservative 4-4-2 formation, but Argentina nearly doubled their shot attempts (19 to 10) and almost tripled their xG totals (3.0 to 1.2). David and Cyle Larin were limited to one shot each, and while it took until the 88th minute for Argentina to officially put the match away with a second goal, the outcome wasn’t in doubt. Argentina played their most vulnerable game of the tournament in the quarterfinals, needing penalties to eke out a win over Ecuador, but Canada still have a mountain to climb.
Any hope of an upset will require something Canada haven’t been able to provide all tournament: good finishing. For the tournament, they have now attempted 40 shots worth a combined 5.9 xG, but they’ve scored only twice. David and Larin have combined to attempt 13 shots worth 2.5 xG but have scored just once, on David’s lightning-strike counterattack against Peru, and the rest of the team has an even worse xG-to-actual-goals ratio. They had several opportunities to put Venezuela away before Rondón’s miracle goal. They’ll need some serious progression to the mean in this department because Argentina are very likely to create better overall opportunities.
Still, it has been a magnificent couple of weeks for Marsch and the Canadian national team. In their first opportunity, they did something Venezuela have done only once in 20 tries — reach a semifinal — and they didn’t have to play their absolute best ball to do it.
Marsch’s team has bought into the style he wants to implement, and at worst, Canada will match the United States’ best Copa América performance. No matter how “disappointed” he might be about his home country’s recent performances, he’s probably not losing much sleep about it at the moment.
Source link : https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/40504229/canadas-copa-america-run-sparks-redemption-arc-marsch
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Publish date : 2024-07-06 01:25:00
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