THE BREAKDOWN: How can CanMNT solve set-piece woes ahead of 2026 World Cup?
We’re now just over a year removed from Jesse Marsch’s arrival to the CanMNT, and it’s safe to say that he’s had a transformative effect on this team.
When he arrived, he joined a Canadian side ranked 49th in the world, one that barely squeaked into the Copa América after a poor 2023-2024 Concacaf Nations League campaign and a mixed 2023 Gold Cup.
Now, a deep Copa América run later, Canada is up to 30th in the world, their best-ever ranking, putting them in a great position with the World Cup now just over 12 months away. Even setbacks have proved to be positive moments, such as when Canada fell to Mexico 2-0 in the 2024-2025 Concacaf Nations League semi-finals, something that will push them on as they get set for the big games that await them over the next 14 months.
Armed with a strong defensive system that suits their team, with a high press that helps defend their goal and create chances, and a vertical attacking plan that gets the most out of their speedy attackers, they’ve started to craft an identity, something they lacked before Marsch’s arrival.
Despite that, however, Marsch knows there is still plenty for his team to work on ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Certainly, he won’t be done tweaking his defence, even if it’s much improved with just 16 goals conceded in the 15 games he’s been in charge (with 25% of that coming in a 4-0 drubbing by the Netherlands in his Canada coaching debut), but the attack will remain his big focus going forward, having scored just 14 goals in those 15 games.
His main priority will be figuring out how to get more when Canada is facing stingy defensive teams and organized low blocks, as well as finding more goal scorers not named Jonathan David and Jacob Shaffelburg, but there’s also one big thing he’ll need to do - make Canada more dangerous on set-pieces.
Of those 14 goals his team have scored, just one came directly off a set-piece, Ismaël Koné’s tidy finish off a corner vs. Uruguay in the Copa América third-place game, with another, Jonathan David’s marker vs. Suriname in the Concacaf Nations League quarter-finals, coming on the second phase of a corner.
Koné 🔥 pic.twitter.com/1seXBUg0FF
— Concacaf (@Concacaf) July 14, 2024
More importantly, they’re not threatening enough in those situations, either, as they’ve struggled to make teams that foul them incessantly pay for doing so.
It remains a big priority for Marsch, who spoke about not doing enough preparation for them when asked about it last November.
“We talked a lot today about set-piece situations, as we feel that we can be much more organized,” Marsch said ahead of the second leg of their Nations League quarter-final matchup vs. Suriname.” And I took some responsibility for that because I don't think we did enough preparation for that.”
As a result, Canada have taken a big step towards addressing that problem, naming Nicolas Gagnon their full-time set-piece coach last week, bringing in the former CF Montréal academy coach and set-piece coach for Goztepe and Southampton to help Canada’s woes in that area.
Now, that leads to an important question - what has held Canada back on set-pieces? The numbers speak for themselves - not only have Canada struggled to score, but they haven’t been generating as many chances, either, especially not when compared to their opponents.
Consider this - under Marsch, in 14 games (there’s no data on Canada’s October 2024 friendly vs. Panama), they take 4.64 corners and 2.71 free kicks per game, turning 20% of their corners and 18.5% of their free kicks into shots. That means on average, they’re generating just under one shot per 90 minutes from corners, and closer to 0.5 shots per 90 minutes on free kicks (all data via WyScout).
By comparison, opponents are averaging 3.86 corners and 2.93 free kicks per 90 minutes when they face Canada, turning 42.5% of those corners and 24.2% of those free kicks into shots. For context, that means Canada is conceding around 1.4 shots from corners and around 1 shots from set pieces per 90 minutes, despite allowing significantly fewer corners and similar free kicks to what they get. 
Given that Canada has been pretty good at defending those situations - they’ve conceded just twice off set-pieces under Marsch - that gives an idea of how poor their attacking numbers have been by comparison to what they have allowed to their opponents.
Of course, there’s only so much the data can say about Canada’s set-piece woes, other than painting the picture of their struggles. That leads to the more important question - what does Canada need to improve when looking back at past attempts?
First, let’s take a look at some clips from the Nations League finals in March, where Canada fell to Mexico in the semi-finals before beating the US in the third place match.
To begin, there are the corners. Across both games, those were split between Ali Ahmed, Alphonso Davies and Mathieu Choinière, with Ahmed and Davies taking a large chunk of the set pieces vs. Mexico, and Choinière taking most of them against the US.
For most of them, they ended up looking like this. Here, Ahmed whips in a decent ball, and Canada has players spread around the box in decent positions, but in the end, no one attacks the ball, leading to an easy Mexican clearance.
Then, on this clip, Ahmed whips in another similar ball, and Canada once again struggles to make contact despite having several players in decent positions, leading to another Mexican clearance.
In particular, what stands out is how flat-footed several of the Canadians are, as they don’t anticipate the outswinging delivery from Ahmed in both clips.
On an inswinging delivery, you can get away with being flat-footed, but not on an outswinger, where the ball has to be met with pace if you’re to redirect it towards goal. Typically, that’s why teams seem more likely than ever to whip in an inswinger and pack the six-yard box, where all players have to do is get a slight touch and redirect the ball towards goal, a technique mastered by Arsenal, in particular.
There's a reason why 61% of corners were inswingers at the halfway mark of the 2024-2025 Premier League season, a number that was once 41% in 2018-2019- teams who use inswingers don’t have to rely on as much movement provided that they can get the ball into the right area, where as an outswinger relies on perfect delivery and exceptional movement from those in the box.
Of course, there’s value to mixing up inswingers and outswingers - it makes it harder to defend different corners, which is why the split in other top five leagues is typically 50/50 between inswingers per that above article - and there’s also the reality that your approach will depend on the takers you have at your disposal. Specifically, that’s something Canada has struggled with, which is why Davies has taken many of them to very mixed results over the past few years despite not taking any at the club level otherwise, a duty he usually split with Stephen Eustáquio, with Ahmed and Choinière only emerging as options over the past few months.
Yet, while Canada’s delivery has remained a key point of focus, the movement continues to be a big factor that stands out when looking back at videos.
Take this outswinger from Ahmed, for example, which gets to a decent area, one where Canada was in a position to do the other thing you can do on outswingers - flick the ball on towards a runner at the back-post.
Ahmed puts in a ball that makes that possible, but despite having four players who do well to attack that near-post space right as Ahmed winds up to kick it, all of them are flat-footed by the time the ball drops, leading to an easy Mexican clearance.
Then, even had one of them had gotten to that ball, no one was open to receive a potential flick at the back post, as there was a lack of secondary movement towards that area, despite it being quite wide-open, with Mexico appearing to mark Canada’s players instead of the space.
Lastly, to stick with the outswinging corners, here’s another great delivery, this time from Choinière, which drops at the back post. There, despite being three Canadians who seemed in a position to get a head on it, none of them attacked the ball, allowing it to drop away harmlessly.
Speaking of Choinière, however, he’s someone to watch in Canada’s quest to fix these set-piece woes. Of those Canadian set-piece takers mentioned above, Choinière seems to be the one who delivers his crosses with the most consistency, doing a good job of whipping them in at dangerous heights, avoiding hitting many floated balls.
That much is clear when looking at some of these inswingers, with some of the most dangerous ones coming from the right foot of Choinière.
For example, there’s this one against the US, which might be the perfect inswinging ball. There, he whips it into the near post, right in the six-yard box, but there’s no Canadians to be found, as they’re all congregated at the back post.
That stands out, because as seen earlier, a large route towards set-piece success is teams jamming the six-yard box and near post with numbers, but Canada didn’t have anyone in either of those positions in that clip.
Just look at how much of a difference having those near-post runners makes in this next clip, which came against Mexico, where Choinière had come onto the field late. Here, he whips in another perfect ball, one that Canada almost scores on as they had multiple runners in that near-post area around the six-yard box.
Yet, that once again shows the area where it feels like Canada will need the most work - their movement on set-pieces. For the most part, they whip in decent balls, but are let down by a lack of movement, with clips like the one just above being a rare sight.
Sometimes, that can make the set-piece takers look worse than perhaps they are - when seeing the service in most of these clips, that sentiment certainly prevails.
Here are two more examples of that.
First, there’s this ball from Ahmed at a crucial moment in the Mexico game, where Canada was trailing 1-0. In that sequence, he drops in a curling ball towards the back post that eludes Mexican goalkeeper, Luis Malagón, but none of Canada’s players can get a head on it.
Yet, as seen there, all of them are standing still, which allows Mexico to just clear it out of danger, through what appears to be a desperate fist from Malagón, who might’ve had no chance if there was a Canadian leaping to get that ball.
Then, in this clip from the US game, Choinière drops a pinpoint back-post ball into the six-yard box, similar to that one from Ahmed, but no one meets it, leading to a US clearance.
Anytime you have a ball dropping into that six-yard box that a goalkeeper can’t reach, that’s the sort of service you want on set-pieces, but in both cases, Canada were unable to make any contact with those crosses, let alone turn them into shots.
Of course, that’s not the only avenue to score on via set-pieces; there are also free kicks, which is another area where Canada has struggled.
When looking at some free kicks, however, similar issues appear.
In particular, this clip may very well be the perfect description of many of Canada’s free kicks - Davies whips in an okay ball, but one that lacks the depth required, and no one in a Canadian shirt can make any contact on it.
Ideally, Davies whips in a ball that curves more towards the back post, but with different movement, maybe Canada can flick it on, showing that the runs they make do influence these plays as much as the delivery.
Similarly, both of these next two clips, one being a Ahmed free kick vs. Mexico, and the other a Choinière ball vs. the US, look nearly identical to that one above - the ball doesn’t quite get to the area they want, but no one’s running onto it, either, allowing the defenders to get first contact in both scenarios.
Once again, to drive home the point about movement, look at this clip, where Canada finds the service lacking on those three previous free kicks. Here, Ahmed whips in a ball that drops right outside the US’s six-yard box, right in between the defensive line and the US’s goalkeeper, Matt Turner, which is *the* perfect ball for that kind of set-piece.
Yet, despite that, Canada wasn't able to make direct contact with the ball, as their runners were either too far at the back post or the near post, meaning that this opportunity instead went to waste.
Otherwise, it’s also worth noting that Canada does attempt a few long throw-ins, with Alistair Johnston and Davies being rather decent at them, but as one can imagine, Canada’s movement also has hindered their success in those situations. Given that throw-ins are the set-piece where movement is arguably the most important thing, with there being a lack of Rory Delap’s in the world, that’s not surprising to see, however.
That shows Gagnon’s challenge, though. While it has felt like service has been a problem, it won’t matter if Canada finds a Kevin De Bruyne clone to whip in crosses - you also need the right movement around the box, and to know when to make those correct movements.
From there, that can open the door for more complex routines, ones where Canada can have decoy takers and runners moving together to create set plays, the prototypical ‘off the training ground’ kind of plays.
Before that, however, Canada has to focus on nailing their basics, such as the runs.
They appear to have decent enough service, and they’ve certainly got the targets between the 6’1” Derek Cornelius, 6’2” Jamie Knight-Lebel, 6’2” Cyle Larin, 6’2” Ismaël Koné, 6’2” Joel Waterman, 6’2” Tani Oluwaseyi, 6’3” Daniel Jebbison, 6’4” Moïse Bombito, and, of course, the 6’5” Promise David, among others - now, it’s all about putting that together.
No doubt, it could come in handy for Canada in a game at the World Cup, say, especially against teams that will try to nullify their press or starve them of the ball, something Canada has had to deal with more as teams adjust to their system under Marsch.
Canada’s ability to have a good plan A under their new head coach can help them go on a run next summer, as the Copa América showed, but it’s important to be flexible and have multiple backup plans, while also being good in every phase of the game, such as set pieces.
They fix that side of their game, and it’ll only add to their attack - all of a sudden, teams will be more hesitant in fouling Canada and giving up corners - which might give them a bit more freedom on the ball, showing that the reason to want to be better in this area extends beyond just wanting to score more goals.
