3 Tactical Takeaways: How the CanMNT’s aggression was nullified in 2-0 loss to Mexico
The CanMNT missed a huge opportunity to move one step closer to ending their 25-year trophy drought on Thursday, as they fell 2-0 to Mexico in the Concacaf Nations League semi-finals.
Just hours after the US were upset by Panama 1-0, as the three-time Nations League champions failed to reach the final for the first time in this tournament’s history, Canada then fell in a match they’ll want to soon forget.
Overall, they didn’t put in a bad performance, as they were very much in this game until late on. Unfortunately, however, some key mistakes cost them, and they were unable to provide answers to many of the questions Mexico asked of them, as the Concacaf veterans flexed their big-game experience on several occasions.
Speaking of Canada’s performance, here are three tactical takeaways from this one.
Canada’s eagerness costs them early:
If one thing was clear heading into this game, it was going to be that Canada wanted to come flying out of the gates, eager to make an early impression.
A team that prides itself on playing with intensity, both with and without the ball, they look to set the tone in that regard right from the first whistle.
When it works, it can be a sight to behold. Opponents start to look uncomfortable on the ball, and scramble to find their positions without it, and seem to slowly wear down as they field wave after wave of pressure.
Unfortunately for Canada, however, they saw the flipside of what can happen when they don’t harness the aggression as they should.
Less than a minute into the game, Canada won a throw-in deep in their half, where they had a good chance to slow things down after the ball had ping-ponged around the middle of the pitch for the first 30 seconds of the game.
Instead of taking a few seconds to breathe and then picking out a teammate with his throw, however, Alistair Johnston decided to take it quickly, as he looked to keep the tempo high. A good decision in theory, however, proved to be a wrong one in practice, as his throw was intercepted, with a bunch of Canadian players still out of position.
Having won back the ball, Mexico did well to take advantage of a big gap between Canada’s midfield and backline, which they immediately ran into. From there, the ball fell to Raúl Jiménez after a lucky bounce, and the in-form veteran Mexican striker made no mistake with his finish, slotting home to give his team the lead. 
As seen here, Canada rushes the throw-in, and then things get chaotic from there, as Mexico exploits the gaps left behind in a swift attacking move.
From there, the pendulum swung heavily in Mexico’s favour for the rest of the game. As seen in our tactical preview, Mexico’s been excellent defensively over the last few games, something Canada learned in a 0-0 draw last September.
With a lead intact, Mexico started to dictate the terms of the game, and they made it one that Canada didn’t want to play.
Yet, it all started after a moment when Canada’s own eagerness to play their style cost them, and it created a hole that was just too big for them to dig out of the rest of the way. 
Attack struggles as Mexico’s team defence impresses once again:
Of course, the early goal might not have loomed so large on another night. At the end of the day, Canada still had 89 minutes to muster up a goal, which didn’t seem to be too tall of a task.
For a team that went with a pretty attacking lineup, and had several other options to turn to on the bench, it felt like they’d at least have the juice to muster up the chances needed to turn something around - from there, they’d hope that one of them would go in.
Surprisingly, however, Canada never seemed to find their attacking mojo. Despite chasing that goal for most of the game, they finished with just 11 shots, with just one of them reaching the target - a 31st-minute Alphonso Davies free-kick that was shot straight at Mexico goalkeeper Luis Malagón.
Certainly, credit has to go to Mexico in that regard - Javier Aguirre’s side put in an excellent defensive performance and were rewarded for it. Given that they’ve now got two clean sheets against Canada since Jesse Marsch's arrival, they’ve figured out how to disrupt Canada’s attack, doing well to limit the things they’re good at.
In particular, they did an excellent job of avoiding any mistakes at the back - at any hint of pressure, they went long - which rendered Canada’s high press quite ineffective. Then, they otherwise did a great job of keeping numbers behind the ball, defending in an incredibly compact 4-4-2, denying Canada of the space they like to run to in open play.
Lastly, much as they did in their September meeting, Mexico wasn’t afraid to slow down Canada by fouling them, as they committed 21 fouls. Knowing that it’d keep Canada from hitting them in transition, it was a prudent bet for them to make, especially given that Canada once again struggled to create clear-cut opportunities from set plays.
Unfortunately for Canada, these problems aren’t new - even if they had done well to score three goals in a November win against Suriname, two in an October win against Panama and two in a September win against the US, a lot of their goals have come from transition moments.
In terms of their build-up play against set defensive blocks, however, chances and goals have been harder to come by, and this game was a prime example of that.
More specifically, Canada’s final ball let them down, as they often got to the right areas on the pitch, but failed to execute. 
Here, Canada does a good job of creating a dangerous attack after some nice combination play, but they just lacked the final ball.
Often, they’d rush chances where they could take an extra touch; or sometimes they would seem to take that extra touch when patience was what they needed. Ironically, they almost seemed to lack the speed of decision-making they had elsewhere on the pitch.
In this sequence, Canada did well to draw Mexico out, but then failed to whip in a dangerous ball at the end of it.
That’s something they need to clean up going forward, as teams will start to throw a steady dose of low blocks at them if these struggles continue (and will continue to foul them in transitions until Canada cleans up their set-pieces), knowing that it can be the best way to frustrate this Canadian attack.
"I think there are a few times we can have a better understanding of how to slow the game down in the last third and make some final passes that get us in and around the goal," Marsch said afterwards. "Then, we can start to have the kind of movements in the box that can give us more chances, and then we can be more creative in some of those moments."
Midfield lacks balance on both sides of the ball:
Lastly, one big thing that Canada will look back at from this game is their midfield, as it felt like they were unable to impose themselves as much as they would’ve hoped in this game, both on and off the ball.
Off the ball, they were rendered ineffective defensively as Mexico bypassed them whenever possible. Therefore, instead of being able to play right on top of Mexico as they intended to, they were forced to play on the back foot, which created some dangerous Mexican transition opportunities.
To that point, the midfield pivot of Stephen Eustáquio and Ismaél Koné actually won eight out of nine combined ground duels - in the rare moments that they got to defend as intended, they did a good job of it. Unfortunately, most of their game was spent chasing the game the other way while stretched out, meaning they were unable to provide as much protection as hoped to the backline, who ended up committing a lot of fouls and earned several yellow cards.
In this clip, Mexico carves through Canada's stretched midfield, leading to an Alistair Johnston yellow card.
On the other side, the midfield was also unable to support Canada’s attack as much as they would’ve hoped, either, which further contributed to Canada's attacking woes. Certainly, the attacking pair of Cyle Larin and Jonathan David will face some questions, as this was another big game they struggled in, but they also both lacked the service to be dangerous, too.
In particular, the fact that David had just 39 touches (and just three in the box) across 90 minutes is a huge concern, as he’s someone you want to get more involved in the game, which is often why he drops in to play as a #10.
Yet, David’s struggles speak to the issues Canada had in midfield in this game. Too often, they were unable to find their #10 between the lines, and that was always going to hurt their attack given that so much goes through David offensively.
Along with the fact that Canada’s other creator, Jonathan Osorio, finished with just eight touches in 60 minutes of action, that further shows Canada’s struggles at progressing the ball in this game - they just didn’t find their creative outlets enough.
Perhaps, however, this will open the door to some tweaks going forward. When seeing these struggles, one can only wonder if Niko Sigur might be soon given a look in midfield given his skills on both sides of the ball, while someone like Mathieu Choinière getting fully fit will be something to watch as he also brings an energy Canada could’ve used in this match.
Either way, it feels like a game like this could open the door for some tactical tweaks, helping avoid further performances like this in the future, as it felt like Canada had no answers to Mexico’s adjustments.
The midfield was one such area that seemed to lack those answers, and Canada felt it in the end, especially in the midfield.
