The Ides of Marsch
Canada Soccer has a new head coach for its men's national team, and it's a little underwhelming. Plus: it's PGA Championship week!
Playing for Bayern Munich in the Champions League last week, Canadian wünderkid Alphonso Davies scored a screamer of a late goal that looked like it would put his team through to the final, until Real Madrid scored twice late because that’s what Real Madrid does in that competition.
Canadian winger Tajon Buchanan, having struggled for game time since his move to Inter Milan, got on the field and scored his first goal for the Italian champions.
Canadian striker Jonathan David, after piling up another 19 goals this season for French club Lille, has reportedly said he is ready to leave France, and has already garnered interest from Italian giants AC Milan and Napoli, plus Premier League heavyweights Manchester United and Aston Villa.
That’s a bunch of Canadians, all making waves in Europe, and what a great time to —
*record scratch*
Wait, what? Oh. Oh, dear.
News came Monday that Canada Soccer, having been without a head coach for the men’s national team for more than eight months since John Herdman decamped for Toronto FC last summer, has finally settled on a replacement in veteran coach Jesse Marsch.
Marsch, a former player and coach with the U.S. men’s national team, was a highly regarded coach with an impressive record. Unfortunately, that was in 2021. After successful stints in MLS and Austria earned him a chance with RB Leipzig in the German top flight, Marsch lasted half a season in that job, winning eight of 21 games. The following year he was hired in mid-season by Leeds United in the English Premier League, saved them from relegation on the final day of the campaign, and then found himself right back near the cellar the following season. He was fired last February, having lasted less than a year in charge, and Leeds was eventually relegated.
He signed a three-year deal with Canada Soccer, which seems optimistic.
Marsch’s most attractive quality for Canada’s top job is probably that he was willing to take it. That is no small thing: the national programs are beset by money problems stemming from a disastrous long-term media-rights deal signed by the previous regime and Herdman, in his waning days on the job, made no secret of the challenges this created. Canada has struggled to take part in international friendlies that would provide major learning opportunities for its young and talented roster, and both the men’s and women’s senior teams have been in open conflict with the federation over compensation. The teams haven’t had a collective bargaining agreement with Canada Soccer for several years now. In announcing Marsch’s hire, Canada Soccer said it was made in part thanks to “philanthropic contributions” from Canada’s three MLS teams, Toronto FC, CF Montreal, and the Vancouver Whitecaps, plus other private donors. Marsch’s title is officially MLS Canada Men’s National Team Head Coach, which is hilarious. Too bad the private donors didn’t also insist on naming rights.
Marsch could, obviously, be successful in his awkward new job title. The men’s team went from a long-time laughingstock to suddenly barnstorming through World Cup qualifying, winning the CONCACAF group, beating the United States and Mexico, and basically becoming so good so fast that it got out over its skis a little. Suddenly it had all the expenses of a top-tier national team, and a fraction of the revenues, because it sold off those media rights back when its supporters were just a merry band of travelling die-hards. (Shout out to The Voyageurs.) Canada played three and lost three in Qatar, but deserved better, and the post-World Cup malaise hasn’t really let up.
Under new leadership now in former golf executive Kevin Blue, Canada Soccer and Marsch have, in theory, time to get the team back to the level of performance it had in the Qatar qualifying window. Where it looked for a while like the Canadian team would end up in the hands of an unproven coach who was willing to the do the job on the cheap, it is now in the hands of someone who was apparently quite expensive. And also kind of unproven.
Marsch’s first non-friendly will be against Lionel Messi and Argentina at the Copa America this summer. A nice, easy way to settle in.
The Ryder Cup of boardroom squabbles
The PGA Championship touches down in Kentucky this week, which is another opportunity to point out that the two sides of golf’s civil war still haven’t figured out a peace deal, more than 11 months after declaring a truce. I think that’s it for the battle analogies. Anyway, I wrote about the ongoing stalemate (one more!), and the damage its doing to the sport, in my latest piece for theScore.
(pause)
Which is an app you should all have on your phones.
(slams door, runs away)