How Jesse Marsch is taking Canada’s 4 Nations title to fuel his soccer team for Concacaf Nations League

Last month the 4 Nations Challenge conquered the sports world Stormenderhand, with the dramatic 3-2 victory of the Canadians over the United States in the championship. 16.1 million viewers in North America. That made it the second most viewed hockey game of the past century, and it also continued the developing rivalry between the two nations.

Canadian fans had John the American national anthem earlier in the tournament, and there were Three fights in the opening moments of the Round-Robin meeting in the US canadaA final 3-1 US victory. But after Canada got revenge in the final, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Posted on X“You can’t take our country – and you can’t take our game”, a clear chance of President Donald Trump Previous comments about making Canada the 51st state.

During his Concacaf Nations League press conference, Canada men’s football coach Jesse Marsch said that he hopes to use the rising tensions to inspire his team, in response to a question from the Katie Baker van de Ringer.

“Look, I exchanged texts with [Canada hockey coach] Jon Cooper. We have not yet had the chance to speak. … Maybe [it] The Canadians a little surprised and the Americans have stuck their national anthem and everything else might have lit a fire among them, but then the second game, our Canadian national team, knew a kind of what the game would require. And that becomes important to us.

“We know that there is a charged atmosphere about what these international games mean now. These are not things that I have to describe. I will say, I have tried to use the Canadian hockey mentality with our players to say: ‘Look at the identity of the Canadian hockey players and they are never back, they are on our identity, who we are on.

Marsch, 51, is a resident of Wisconsin and old MLS player who made two performances for the USMNT and coached in the MLS after retiring. He then rose to global football prominences in 2019-2020, when he led Red Bull Salzburg To competition and cup titles. He took over later RB Leipzig and finally Leeds United. Canada hired him in May 2024 and four months later, Canada defeated the USMNT for the first time since 1957.

Last month, Marsch criticized President Trump’s words and called them “Disturbing and honestly offensive” and “ridiculous”, “ And he had more to say at Tuesday’s press conference.

“Ik ga nu niet politiek worden. Ik denk dat ik mijn verklaringen duidelijk en bekend heb gedaan. Ik zal zeggen dat je door het kijken naar de vier naties in hockey te zien, je kunt zien dat het klimaat voor sporten in Noord -Amerika is verheven voor nationale teams. Ik hoop dat dit toernooi de beste kan zijn op de spelers en we kunnen de tijd en we kunnen in de politiek krijgen en we kunnen in de politiek zijn en het zijn van het team van de tijd en we kunnen de tijd en we in de Plactics are and to strengthen the players and we can be the players and we are close to the players and the possession of the players and it can be to strengthen the time, the love for the sport and whatever your nationality is, that you [are able to] Support your team completely.

“And that has been our focus, right? We have not even tackled the political situation internally, in the team. We have just focused on the fact that we want to be at our best, specifically on Thursday because we really respect our opponent in Mexico and we want to give ourselves the best chance to continue and compete for a trophy on Sunday.”

Usmnt -coach Mauricio In the meantime, Pochettino said: “We can’t combine political things with sport”, which of course Marsch already has.

It can all lead to a different wrinkle in a different champion competition: if the USMNT Panama can beat (Thursday on Paramount+ Suriname can beat Suriname at 7 p.m. Paramount+ At 9 p.m. they would meet in the final of Sunday in Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles.