Jesse Marsch's Best Quotes from Netherlands and France Friendlies
There was an undeniable look of amusement on Jesse Marsch's face when he spoke to the press after the Canadian men's national team's goal-less draw against France in Bordeaux – after a night of insisting that lessons were very much learned after Canada's much less palatable performance against Holland, his job got a whole lot easier... at least for now.
Let’s take a look at some of Marsch’s more memorable quotes after both matches.
A Resounding Optimism
Jesse Marsch is pretty good at snatching optimism from the jaws of cynicism. He has to be if he intends to turn that optimism into real results on the pitch. He was optimistic, even after the Netherlands debacle.
"In the first half, we represented ourselves really well, and the version of football that I want the team to move toward." Marsch said. "We can make adjustments to be clearer and simpler in the way we want to play, but for a 4-0 match, it was actually a pretty good performance."
It was this persistent optimism that embedded itself in every quote, even after a rude drubbing.. It’s interesting to hear a manager, in real time, express a rationale for answering questions in a very particular way.
"I thought to myself, wow, this is going to be a fun group to work with. But I also knew the reality given the opponents coming up, that we would have some tough days and I knew I would have to stay strong and positive."
If you think about it, the CanMNT probably felt a lot like our own fickle fanbase. Sure, they have that professional resolve to keep trying - to keep caring from one whistle to the next. But how can you not feel some type of way when faced with world-class teams who seem to do your day job better than you? It’s up to the manager to be a rock when things go awry, and Marsch is thrown straight into the fire, where things are prime to go awry. With better results, paradoxically, come less flattering remarks. Ultimately, it’s his job to have a better version of this team in his head.
The High Press*
*That being Jesse Marsch’s High Press, not AGR’s weekly CPL column.
It’s something we’re gonna be seeing a lot of under Jesse Marsch - he loves to press, and he wants the players at the front of the line to press, and he wants to make it very annoying to be the better team, because you’re gonna get pressed.
There’s a rationale here that I like. Cornelius and Bombito did their jobs quite well over these two matches. If you have any nails left after watching the ball persist in our third for as long as it did, though, you’re a lot braver than me. Though that backline looked undeniably ‘ready’ to defend, the goal here is to minimize the defensive work the central defense has to pull off. We want the ball rolling down the flanks where our speedsters can pester you persistently.
"You could see that we were compact - we weren't just pressing all the way up high.” Marsch said. “We were trying to control spaces... and make it difficult for them to break us down. For the most part, in the first half, we accomplished that.”
Bombastic Bombito
These were Moise Bombito’s fifth and sixth caps for Canada, and his first starts at centre-back. By virtue of being the fastest player in MLS, there’s a real and justifiable hype around him, even while he’s struggled somewhat with the Colorado Rapids as of late. It was gratifying to see his best qualities on his display, as he and Cornelius probably solidified their starting spots in Copa America.
"I thought he was very good," said Marsch, "I asked him and Derek to be very aggressive and very confident in stepping in at times... so that tactically they would provide a good foundation for us and I think they both performed really well.”
It sure sounds like the 24-year old has won the trust of his manager.
It's just one game
And Marsch was just as adamant about that after France, speaking with TSN’s Matthew Scianitti.
"It's one game, it's a friendly... it's a draw, it's not a win," he said with another little laugh. "But there's confidence in the group right now. They sense the energy of what's being created and this will help them understand more clearly and believe more in what we're trying to establish.”
Marsch was asked if the friendly result gave Canada the right emotional state heading into an equally difficult bout against Argentina.
"Of course!" He said. "I want the players to feel the power and the contagiousness of how we play. But that's more [about] the mindset than the emotion.”
If we’re going to perform a completely inappropriate autopsy of the timid aphorisms brought upon by post-game interviews, I would comment that this is probably a little different from the answer, say, John Herdman would have given. Herdman fully embraced the invisible power of emotions. He wanted his teams to feel very specific feelings about everything on the horizon. Marsch isn’t afraid to speak in those terms, but he’s much more keen to tie them to the on-field product, than to speculate about the emotional state of 26 men on one, holistic metre.
More call-ups?
Ok I can’t psychoanalyze this one because it’s all real and tangible.
“We’re bringing in a couple more players, which I think we’ll announce soon,” Jesse Marsch admitted after #FRACAN
— Canadian Soccer Daily (@CANSoccerDaily) June 10, 2024
Who's coming in?!?!
Could there be a coveted dual-national or an excluded #CanMNT vet? 🤔 https://t.co/AAnLDxtlWG
“We’re bringing in a couple more players, which I think we’ll announce soon.”
Stay tuned for an article on who that might be!
Glorious uncertainty!
Behind that cheerful veneer after the Netherlands game rested a not so subtle frustration - a frustration with being asked to answer uncertain questions with absolute certainty. Dayne St. Clair was given the nod to start against the Netherlands, and at the time, it seemed the right choice. - he’s been our best shot stopper this season, after all.
But someone wanted to know whether it would be this way forever! And Jesse Marsch didn’t want to give a straight answer to that, given that he was about to give the nod to Crepeau against France.
"I made the decision in this game because I think Dayne has been performing really well with his club," but with a wry smile, he added, "There's no decision really that's been made at any level yet because we've only been together for six days!"
And I think that sums everything up nicely. On one hand, when Canada allowed three goals in the space of thirteen minutes, I wanted to pick up my computer and throw my computer across the room and lie face down for a couple of hours. On the other hand, though, that’s reserved for Football Manager. And real life isn’t Football Manager. Real life Marsches on and unfriendly scorelines get jotted down on Wikipedia pages, and everyone feels different given enough time.