Marsch's goal is more goals

Canada shows rapid progress under coach, faces Venezuela in quarters

- JOE CALLAGHAN

Things are going so well for Jesse Marsch that even his own bout of the Sunday scaries was a positive, uplifting one.

When Marsch shook off a lack of sleep to join the media last Sunday morning and discuss the historic breakthrough his side had made the previous night in Orlando, one of his first offerings was: “We can improve in almost everything.”

Call that a scary thought. Just seven weeks and five games into his tenure at the helm of the national team, the 50-year-old American has already propelled the team to places Canada Soccer CEO Kevin Blue must only have dreamed of when he concocted the plan to bring Marsch aboard.

It started with a stirring 0-0 draw on the road against world No. 2 France and Kylian Mbappé in early June, which we now know was merely a springboard to the safe progress to the knockout stage of the Copa America, where Canada has eliminated Peru and Chile with stirring and battling displays.

But Marsch is absolutely correct. The quarterfinal berth and date with Venezuela in Dallas on Friday night was achieved on the back of some terrifically good Canadian qualities, but there were some badly lacking, too.

The manager’s early success in implementing the organizational and more workmanlike aspects of his tactical approach — intense pressing, squeezing of spaces and relentless running — has been stellar. Progress in the offensive game? Less so. But he insists that too will come.