PRESS CONFERENCE 🎙️ Jesse Marsch, Jonathan David preview CanMNT vs Suriname 🔥 | Presented by tonybet
After picking up a gritty 1-0 away win over Suriname in leg one of their 2024-2025 Concacaf Nations League quarter-final, the mission is simple for the CanMNT as they get set for leg two at BMO Field on Tuesday - it’s time to complete the job.
If they pick up a win or a draw, they’ll advance to the semi-finals of the Nations League, which will be held in Los Angeles next March, inching them closer to their first trophy since the 2000 Gold Cup.
But while Canada could advance with a draw or a narrow win, make no mistake - they want to win this second leg with conviction, ensuring they advance comfortably.
After feeling they left goals on the table in leg one, they want to leave nothing to chance in leg two, as they feel their narrow result benefitted Suriname more than it did them, keeping the door open for a comeback in leg two.
Because of that, while keeping defensive solidity is a priority (Canada will advance if they keep a clean sheet), look for an aggressive Canadian team at BMO Field on Tuesday.
“It's important, we have a lead, so we know that if we keep a clean sheet, we're through, so having defensive stability will be important,” CanMNT head coach Jesse Marsch explained on Monday. “But again, I want to reiterate that we will be aggressive, we will go after this game to win, not just to preserve the lead.”
“I think that they (Suriname) will be rather pleased with their match plan, they kept us contained for a lot of the match and we weren't able to find ways to get more goals, so I think they would feel pretty good about some of the things they did.”
GOAL 🇨🇦
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) November 16, 2024
JUNIOR HOILETT, LET'S GO 😎#CanMNT go up 1-0 over Suriname in Leg 1 of this Concacaf Nations League quarter-finals series 💥
🔴 Watch LIVE on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/SJgS9EVSQu
For those who are familiar with Marsch, those comments won’t be surprising to see - since his arrival, Marsch has made it clear that he wants this Canadian team to be aggressive and take games to their opponents, instead of the other way around.
And that goes double at home, where Canada will be more familiar with their surroundings, giving them a big advantage in a decisive game.
Just their second home game under Marsch, and first competitive home match, they don’t just want to win, but they want to entertain their fans, and they know that coming out aggressively is the best way to do that.
“I'm not saying we need to be more aggressive,” Marsch continued. “I'm saying we need to stay aggressive. Last game, we were aggressive from the start, I thought we played with urgency, and the whole match was under control - from a tactical and mental perspective, we were very good, so it’s not about being more aggressive, it's about staying aggressive - I want to be clear on that.”
Make no mistake, however - despite noting that Suriname would be the happier team after the result, he was pleased with what he saw in the first leg.
Despite it being a close game, his side was in control for much of the game and always looked like the likelier team to win. Had his team been ruthless with a few more chances, that could’ve been a 3-0 victory, one that would’ve opened the door for a much more comfortable second leg.
Because of that, he doesn’t want his team to change too much - he feels if they can do that, and improve their final third execution, they should be in a good position to really control this match.
“I think we commanded the game in all phases,” Marsch explained. “But we're still also trying to clean up a little bit of some of our ball possession tactics and then final third execution and ruthlessness in front of the goal.”
SO CLOSE, TANI 😭
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) November 16, 2024
Tani Oluwaseyi nearly celebrated his 1st #CanMNT goal... and, instead, gets to hear the reverb of both posts as the ball refuses to cross the line 🥲 pic.twitter.com/nsyGIIOESl
At the same time, there is one area where he’s hoping his team can tighten up - their offensive set-pieces. Despite having seven corners in leg one, and several other dangerous free kicks, they were unable to generate much in terms of dangerous chances, as they had just two shots from such situations.
This team has the weapons to be dangerous on dead ball situations - between the likes of Moïse Bombito, Derek Cornelius, Cyle Larin, Joel Waterman, Ismaël Koné and others, they’ve certainly got targets to aim at - but their delivery and execution on those set-pieces have been an issue.
Marsch shouldered some of the blame for those struggles in leg one, noting that he didn’t train set-pieces as much as he should’ve in the lead-up, something he rectified over the weekend, so look for Canada to try and take advantage of those situations in leg two.
“We talked a lot today about set-piece situations, as we feel that we can be much more organized, and I took some responsibility for that because I don't think last week we did enough preparation for that.”
So now, look for this Canadian side to take care of business in this second leg.
Given that the last time they were in this situation didn’t go as planned, as they fell 3-2 to Jamaica in leg two of their 2023-2024 Nations League quarter-final tie after a 2-1 leg one win, which eliminated them on away goals, they want to rectify that loss with a win.
With it being almost exactly a year since that loss, which was their last competitive game in Canada, it’ll be a good way to truly prove how much of a reboot this year has been for them, continuing their rapid progress under Marsch since his arrival in May.
So while Canada will be thinking about that Jamaica loss, as they’ll want to avoid making the same mistakes, they know this is a fresh start, and will look to ride their new momentum to a second-ever final-four appearance in this tournament.
“I think you can always learn from the past,” Canadian forward, Jonathan David, offered on Monday. “But we try not to focus so much on what happened in the past, because this is a whole different team, new tactics, new style of play, so while the same scenario to happen is not impossible, but we’ve prepared those things, and we'll go into the game knowing what happened last year and make sure it won’t happen again.”
