Canada coach Jesse Marsch has a way of making it hard for Americans to root for their neighbors in World Cup

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Jesse Marsch has been around American sports, and American sports journalism, long enough to recognize the question posed by Fox Sports soccer writer Doug McIntyre was not at all unusual. Opportunities to pose questions to prominent figures with particular insight can be limited, especially during an event such as the FIFA World Cup.

And so McIntyre, during a press conference following Canada’s Round of 32 victory Sunday over South Africa at Los Angeles Stadium, asked Marsch what the United States might expect from Bosnia and Herzegovina in their game three days later. Marsch is head coach of the Canada men’s national team, which opened its tournament against Bosnia.

“Doug, I appreciate your question,” Marsch responded. “But I don’t really care.”

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Of all the Americans operating in the world’s most popular sport, Marsch has made himself more difficult for his fellow citizens to embrace than just about anyone. And so we wonder, as Canada face Morocco in their first-ever World Cup Round of 16 game on the coincidentally appropriate July 4 holiday:

Is America rooting for Jesse Marsch?

And if that’s a no, then can America root for Canada without Marsch getting in the way?

They are our good neighbors. They were allies in World War II. They shared their favorite sport with us more than a century ago so the National Hockey League and Stanley Cup playoffs could become one of our most exciting sports competitions. They sent us more than 50 years worth of laughs in the persons of Dan Aykroyd, Catherine O’Hara, Mike Myers, Martin Short, John Candy and many more. Oh, and they gave us Rush. I’d be a Fly By Night columnist if I left out one of the greatest rock bands.

In return, we sent them the coach who has taken them deeper into the World Cup than ever. They’ve only been to the tournament three times, and the two without Marsch as coach produced an 0-6 record. Here, they’ve won twice, drawn once, scored 9 goals and allowed only 3.

Great stuff, until he speaks.

Has there ever been a coaching candidate in any sport who reacted more childishly upon learning a coveted job went to someone else? I’m not talking about privately breaking a few dishes or cursing at the walls. I’m talking about how Marsch publicly pouted since Gregg Berhalter was rehired as USMNT head coach in June 2023.

“All I’d say is that it was made very clear to me by U.S. Soccer that I was going to be the coach,” Marsch told GiveMeSport in March. “And then it was made very clear to me that I was not.”

Then he said more.

“At the time, I was devastated and angry, but now I am thankful and really happy to be where I’m at.”

It wasn’t the first time he’d made public his displeasure with the Berhalter hire, only the most recent.

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Just months after that process ended, Marsch was working as an analyst at CBS Sports when he said of the USMNT under Berhalter, “We’ve talked a lot about this ‘golden generation’, them being so talented. They don’t have a signature win yet. They don’t have a win against a big opponent where you can look at and go, ‘Yeah, that was an incredible performance’ and that shows this team is ready for the biggest games.’”

At the time, the USMNT had won the CONCACAF Nations League final with a 3-2 win against Mexico in 2021, and had conquered that summer's Gold Cup with what amounted to a “B” squad. They’d also won the Nations League over Mexico in 2023, albeit under interim coach B.J. Callahan. And they went through 2022 World Cup qualifying without losing to their archrivals, winning at home in Cincinnati and then drawing on the road.

In January 2024, Marsch criticized Berhalter’s approach to the game, particularly his emphasis on possession-based soccer. Following a loss to Slovenia in the least important exhibition game of the year – the January camp game involving primarily MLS players aspiring to national team inclusion – Marsch said, “When I watch a game like this, I think we’re trying to be Spain 2010, and we just don’t have the players to do that, and we don’t have the time with these small groups to execute what you want that to become.

“This is what Gregg Berhalter is, and this is what he wants. For me, it doesn’t really access the qualities of the players that we have and now the players are, some of them, in for the first time, their first cap. They don’t want to make mistakes. They want to make the coach happy, but it doesn’t represent a team that, I think, goes out there to play the match, to go after the game, to try to now win the game. It represents a team that is so focused on where their positioning is every time the ball moves that they’re almost not free to go into the game.”

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Marsch can say he was functioning as an analyst in making these statements.

And there were plenty of Berhalter critics who loved hearing them.

One can say the timing of the comments was intriguing, at the least, and they were part of what makes what success he has achieved with Canada a challenge to appreciate.

Marsch grew up and went to high school in Racine, Wisconsin, which seems not as distant from Canada as most places in the United States, but there’s always Michigan’s Upper Peninsula blocking the way. It’s a longer trip than you’d think. His journey to become the head coach of the Canada men’s national team, though, was a much more involved journey than can be traversed by automobile.

He became adept enough as a student and athlete to play soccer at Princeton, and to be drafted by Major League Soccer in the third round in 1996, and to win three MLS Cups and three U.S. Open Cups in 14 seasons.

As a coach, he won two MLS Supporters’ Shields for most regular-season points accumulated with the New York Red Bulls and coached in the Champions League with Red Bull Salzburg. He also coached at RB Leipzig in Germany’s Bundesliga and Leeds United in England’s Premier League.

His is exactly the sort of American success story we’d want to appreciate on the nation’s 250^th birthday. If only he’d make it less of a challenge.

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