GANGUE-RUZIC: The CanMNT's 2024 Copa América journey is over. What's next on road to 2026 World Cup?
Now that the dust has settled on the CanMNT’s maiden Copa América voyage, it’s a good chance to take a step back and reflect on what has been a special month for this Canadian team.
A newbie to the chaos that can be CONMEBOL soccer, Canada made the most of the opportunity to play among some of the world’s best and can leave with their heads high after finishing in fourth place.
They left with a bitter taste in their mouth as they were minutes away from securing third place, but ironically, that feeling may be a perfect way to describe what this last month has done to the team - they’re ready to take a big step forward in the next two years and want to carry themselves like a top team as a result of that.
Credit for that, however, has to be given to new head coach Jesse Marsch, who despite having little time on the job since he was hired in May, has done well to hit the ground running in this tournament, breathing new life into the team with his tactics, approach and mentality.
After looking like they’d started to stagnate in 2023, as they were unable to build off the success of reaching the World Cup for the first time in 36 years in 2022, it feels like the team is on an upward trajectory once again for the first time in nearly two years as a result of this past month. Their play in this tournament showed that, as they were able to test themselves against some top sides and never looked fazed by the experience.
Certainly, they showed their naivety at times and learned plenty of valuable lessons that Marsch will look to take in stride, but they never left the pitch feeling like they couldn’t hang with teams, or that they were invited just to make up the numbers. Even when faced against one of the best national teams of a generation in Argentina, a tough Uruguay side, an up-and-coming Venezuela or two experienced sides in Peru and Chile, Canada went out, played their way and gave themselves a shot of winning.
For a team that lacked experience playing sides outside of Concacaf, they got a perfect crash course of what it takes to compete with and beat some of the top sides in the world, and that’s expected to pay off for them in the future. Less than two years away from the next World Cup, which Canada will be co-hosting, they can realistically look at that tournament and dream of making a run, something this Copa América proved to them.
"This was their time"#CanMNT at the 2024 Copa America: A video essay by Kristian Jack 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/iSLycBhLZe
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) July 15, 2024
Before then, however, they’ve still got plenty of work to do if they’re to take that next step as a group, one that will push them towards becoming a top 20 national team.
Here’s a look at what the CanMNT must do next as they look to take the lessons of a magical Copa América and get set for the next challenges that await as a group in the weeks, months and years to come.
Find more tests against the best:
When looking back at some of the teams the CanMNT have played over the past six weeks, including pre-Copa América friendlies, some strong names stand out, such as the Netherlands, France, Argentina (x2) and Uruguay, who are all among the top 15 teams in the world.
Along with matches against savvy Conmebol sides like Peru, Chile and Venezuela, it was quite the eight-match sequence for this Canadian team, who got to pit themselves against teams who know how to win, and at a pretty high level.
That’s crucial, as their next step as a team is to start beating those kinds of teams more regularly, having yet to become a side that can consistently go into games against that calibre of side and get a result. To be fair, it’s not an easy skill to learn, and it’ll be one that they’ll acquire over time, but the best way to learn is by facing the best more often.
Because of that, this stretch of games mustn’t be the only time they play top teams between now and the 2026 World Cup.
That's a tough way for the #CanMNT to lose to 🇺🇾 as they fall on PKs
— Alexandre Gangué-Ruzic (@AlexGangueRuzic) July 14, 2024
🇨🇦 deserved to win, but 🇺🇾's experience showed with the late equalizer and their PKs
Once again, shows 🇨🇦 can compete (and should beat) these teams, but they're still gaining the maturity and experience needed
Certainly, some of that will be out of their control, as they’ll have to focus on the Concacaf Nations League this fall and next spring, and the Gold Cup next summer, but they’ll have to make sure to fill every other available window with high-quality friendlies whenever possible - and it’s not as if Concacaf doesn’t have solid teams like the US, Mexico or Panama to go up against.
As seen over the last few months, they can go toe-to-toe with top teams - drawing teams like France or Uruguay are a positive example of that. At the same time, as seen in those games, or in their losses to the Netherlands and Argentina, there are still several things Canada will need to learn to start turning more of those losses into draws and draws into wins going forward.
One is to take their chances, as they left a lot of them on the table this Copa América - they missed a tournament-high 19 big chances despite generating 22 such opportunities, second in the whole tournament only behind Argentina. Another thing is to limit mistakes defensively, something which they did quite well for most of the tournament, but they weren’t perfect, which you need to be against top sides.
Otherwise, better managing games, using more of their depth and finding more consistency from game to game will be other things they’ll keep an eye on.
Yet, the best way to learn those things will be by testing themselves against top teams, as those will be the games where they can see the difference in level, and what it takes to beat those kinds of sides. In other matches, you can get away with not being at your best and still winning, but not against top teams, as Canada learned, and they’ll want to grow from those mistakes, preferably in more matchups against teams of that calibre. 
Continue tactical growth under Marsch:
It can be easy to forget after how chaotic this past month has been for this Canadian team, but Jesse Marsch has hardly had much of a chance to work with this team, as these last six weeks were his first opportunity to do so after his hiring last month.
And that’s important to remember for one key reason - more growth is yet to come for this group, one who is likely far from done scratching the surface of their potential under their new manager.
Often, it can take months and even years for a team to get properly shaped in their managers' image. In fact, this Canadian side has even recently seen that first-hand - their success in 2021 and 2022 under John Herdman doesn’t likely happen if not for the groundwork that Herdman had put in during 2018 and 2019.
Therefore, while it’s exciting to see Marsch’s tenure get off to a strong start, it’s worth noting that he’ll still feel he has a lot more work to do with this team tactically in different areas of Canada’s game to get them to their best.
Things Jesse Marsch learned about the #CanMNT this Copa:
— Alexandre Gangué-Ruzic (@AlexGangueRuzic) July 14, 2024
-They can compete, just need more experience to beat the best
-The back 4 can be built around
-🇨🇦 has depth to create XI competition
-Koné's ceiling📈
-Crépeau🧱
-The 4-2-3-1 needs a long-term look
-David/Larin pair📉
At the back, for example, Canada will look to continue to get used to Marsch’s 4-2-2-2, which requires a lot of discipline from the front six when defending, which took time to get used to. Along with the challenges of playing with a high line and looking to press, Canada still has a lot to work to do in that regard, as they were quite good defensively when set, but struggled to defend transitional moments, or when that press was broken, which will come with more reps.
Then, offensively, Canada is still figuring out their best system, as they struggled to score in this tournament, finding the net just four times in eight games under Marsch, getting shut out in five of those games. In particular, their finishing let them down, something they’ll hope improves before anything, but tactically they still are yet to figure out what their best attack looks like, too.
To get an idea of how so, there’s the fact that after playing the first seven games with a two-striker set-up headlined by Cyle Larin and Jonathan David, Canada’s best offensive performance under Marsch came against Uruguay, where Marsch tweaked his tactics to play with a lone striker leading in a 4-2-3-1 that still defended like a 4-2-2-2. There, Canada looked fluid and dangerous even without Larin or David, who both started on the bench, and could’ve beaten Uruguay by multiple goals if not for some haphazard finishing.
What that shows is that making that tweak permanent going forward could bring some value to the Canadian attack, as one can imagine David thriving in a system where he could lead the line like that, especially after seeing him score off the bench in that game as the lone striker, finally ensuring that a flood of Canadian chances ended up in the Uruguay net.
Yet, even beyond the personnel that Canada employs offensively, they’ll have to figure out how they want to build up in possession, how aggressively they use their full backs, what kind of wide play they aim to use and how they want their midfielders to attack, showing that their offensive questions go further beyond how they deploy their strikers.
Plus, they’ve also got to figure out how they want to set up in possession, too - do they plan on playing a 3-2-5 with their full backs pressed up, an aggressive 2-3-5 with the full backs still pressed up, a staggered 3-2-2-3 box, or a 3-3-4 similar to what they used against Uruguay?
In reality, the answer can be fluid, and depend on the game and the opponent, but those are all options to consider, although one would expect them to try and grow in a 3-3-4 that can also become a 3-2-5 depending on the full backs, at least based on the Uruguay game.
But those will all be questions Marsch can figure out in time as he gets to know his squad, and as other players emerge for him to use. In this first month, his job was just to take stock of what he had and do his best to mould them in his image, which he did quite well, to his credit.
Now, he’ll look to properly stamp out his identity, figuring out which players fit into that, and that will be crucial to this team’s growth. One big thing they’ve lacked when it comes to beating top teams in the past is that they didn’t quite have a clear tactical identity, something that’s already changed under Marsch, and they’re far from being finished growing, either.
Recruit dual-nationals and improve depth:
The good news for Marsch? He’s got a core group of players who seem to fit quite nicely into his system. There’s no doubting the quality of Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David, and it appears to be a matter of time before Ismaël Koné is mentioned in similar terms to that duo if it hasn’t happened already.
Along with the presence of Stephen Eustáquio, Tajon Buchanan, Alistair Johnston, Richie Laryea and Jonathan Osorio, who were key core pieces under Herdman and remained so under Marsch, and the presence of new pieces such as Maxime Crépeau, Moïse Bombito and Derek Cornelius, this Canadian team has a strong group of players to build around going forward.
Not only that, but they’ve got several guys knocking on the door, too, as the likes of Jacob Shaffelburg, Ali Ahmed, Mathieu Choinière, Liam Millar, Theo Bair, Tani Oluwaseyi and Luc De Fougerolles all showed.
So now, the big key is to continue and foster competition within that group, starting at the bottom of the roster and pushing up from there, as the difference between top national teams isn’t usually top-end talent (although it helps), but depth. Just ask Norway, who is armed with stars like Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard, but has struggled to reach major tournaments as they don’t have the players to surround their two stars.
Ideally, Canada’s core group of stars will continue to grow, but that will only happen as more names start to stake out regular roles elsewhere in the team.
The good news, however? The movement has already begun in that regard, as it also starts with the players' club situations, as it helps to have more Canadians playing regularly domestically in the CPL and across MLS, and then pushing to higher and higher levels from there.
For example, it’s positive to see Koné recently move to a Ligue 1 side like Marseille, a move that will help him reach his lofty potential as a player, and the same goes for how Tajon Buchanan joined Serie A giants Inter Milan earlier this year (even if he faces a speed bump in his road to becoming a full-time Inter starter after sustaining a major injury at this Copa América).
In a similar vein, it also makes it intriguing to see someone like Bair recently move to a Ligue 1 side in Auxerre, and the likes of Cornelius and Bombito linked to clubs in the circuit, further adding to Canada’s reservoir of players playing in the top five leagues.
🆕 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐨 𝐁𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐞 𝐥’𝐀𝐉𝐀 🔵⚪️
— AJ Auxerre (@AJA) July 16, 2024
Le club est ravi d’annoncer la signature de l’international canadien jusqu’en 2028
👉 https://t.co/LYMpvZY1Nd
𝑩𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒖𝒆 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒐 ! 😃#TeamAJA pic.twitter.com/gMr0iBWvkn
Then, if the likes of Shaffelburg, Ahmed and Choinière can one day join them in Europe, even if not directly at top five clubs right away (although that would be a bonus) that would be an even bigger win, especially if they can find clubs where they can continue the strong development arc they’ve all started in MLS with their play over the last few years.
Each transfer will then have a knock-on effect on this program, increasing the competition in the squad while opening the door down the road for more players to move off the back of it.
But while that process has been going on for a while now, another way to accelerate it remains the recruitment of dual nationals, which is another key way to increase depth. Canada has done a pretty good job of getting some important dual-nationals into the fold over the past few years, with Eustáquio and Koné the best examples in recent memory, and they’ve continued that this year by cap-tying Oluwaseyi and provisionally securing Luc De Fougerolles for the next three years.
And there are several more they can still recruit, too, which could help Canada further shore up positions of need with some key recruits that can come in and push the group with what they’re doing at the club level and within the camps themselves.
Because of that, it was interesting to see Marsch admit this week he is looking at several dual nationals, telling Sportsnet there are 10 dual nationals on his radar right now, including a handful that could help the team a lot long-term, showing that he knows how important that will be.
That’s key, as securing some of those players could further accelerate Canada’s growing player pool, helping this team push to the heights they feel they can reach after their success at Copa América, but are still working towards.
Jesse Marsch is tracking 10 dual-nats, stating that a few could help this team now. Here are some potential options.
— Josh Deming (@tv_jjd) July 15, 2024
Luca Koleosho, Daniel Jebbison, Niko Sigur, Mo Farsi, Promise David, Lucas Pos, Simon Colyn, Justin Smith, Luka Kulenović and Santiago López. Also Ryan Gauld 🇨🇦
Win a trophy:
While Marsch looks to help build out the depth of this team, however, it’s worth noting that a key task remains for this core group ahead of the 2026 World Cup, one that could be massive for their growth and development as a team - winning a trophy.
Having last lifted silverware in 2000, when Canada won the Gold Cup, it’d be massive for Canada to break that drought with a trophy win over the next two years, perhaps during the Nations League next spring or at the Gold Cup next summer.
By doing that, they could accomplish two key things - A), show that they have truly graduated from a naive Concacaf side to one of the powerhouses of the region, and B) give their players a taste of what goes into winning trophies, which isn’t easy.
#CanMNT goals for 2025?
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) July 17, 2024
Win a trophy 🏆. That's all. Gotta win something.
Here's why 👇 pic.twitter.com/zOoVbAvwjG
If Canada is indeed to make a run at the World Cup in 2026, it would go a long way to have experience of making a run within Concacaf that finishes with them lifting a trophy, especially after not doing so for over 24 years.
Having come close, none closer than their loss in the finals of the 2022-2023 Nations League, it’s an important hump for them to get over now.
Plus, it can be a good way for them to make up for any high-level friendlies they might miss out on due to their participation in these competitions, as competitive games with trophies on the line against the US and Mexico are a good way to alleviate the struggles Canada may have scheduling friendlies with top teams around the world as they all navigate World Cup qualifiers and other competitions.
Therefore, they must find a way to lift some silverware over their heads in the next few years. Having made a deep run in what is argued to be a tougher competition at this Copa América, there is no better way to prove that wasn’t a fluke than by taking care of business within Concacaf and getting a trophy to show for their efforts.
As most top teams will say, lifting that first trophy can be so crucial for a team's confidence, and for a young side like Canada, that first trophy could be what they need in order to reach their potential as a group. 
Build some momentum:
Fittingly, all of these points lead nicely to the final thing this CanMNT side must do in the next few years - build some momentum off the back of this run.
With the men’s World Cup coming to Canada in two years, they’ve never had a better shot of capturing the long-term interest of fans, especially after this Copa América run.
Had this not happened, it’s possible that this team could’ve made it to 2026 without any residual carry-over of momentum from their 2022 World Cup participation - that’s how much of an impact 2023 had on them.
Now, however, they’ve been given another opportunity to ride a wave of momentum that wasn’t too dissimilar to the wave they got to ride at the 2022 World Cup, and it’s up to them to ride that into 2026 and then to bigger heights beyond that.
There’s no doubt that there’s an appetite for soccer in Canada, as has remained clear with how Canadians step up to support Canada in big moments, such as at the 2015 Women’s World Cup, when the CanWNT won the gold medal at the 2021 Olympics, the 2022 men’s World Cup or the other. The big challenge, however, has been to maintain that momentum between tournaments, as it’s not as if the National Teams stop playing in those gaps.
Not particularly bothered about a Copa America "bronze medal" to be honest. Will remember Davies leading the team out alongside Messi, the ice-cold penalties against Venezuela, special moments from Shaffelburg, Crepeau, and more. Great summer.#CanMNT
— Oliver Platt (@plattoli) July 14, 2024
For this CanMNT side, they’ll look to tackle that challenge of keeping people interested, and one big way to do that would be to win a trophy, as it’s hard to ignore success, but even beyond that, there are several ways to do so.
Yet, other than scheduling more home games, most of the key factors are indicated elsewhere in this piece, which will in turn ensure this team continues to improve and push towards becoming a top side in the world, putting them in the best position to succeed at the 2026 World Cup.
But that shows why the next few years are so crucial for this team, not just on the field, but off it, too, showing why the importance of this Copa América is yet to be fully felt, even if it provided some key memories that will last a generation.
Ultimately, if this Canadian side is to get the most out of what they just did, the work is just beginning for them. The good news? They appear to be aware of that and will look to keep pushing in the weeks, months and years to come, ensuring they can reach 2026 knowing they’ll have done what they can to be ready for that tournament.
