Canada coach Marsch ‘disappointed’ by USMNT ‘lack of discipline’ at Copa America

Amid a successful debut tournament in charge of Canada, Jesse Marsch couldn’t help but get a dig in at the U.S. men’s national team.

Marsch, who was only hired as Canada head coach in May, has guided his side through the group stage at the Copa América. Les Rouges will face Venezuela on Friday in a quarterfinal in Arlington, Texas.

The USMNT, meanwhile, is reeling after suffering a stunning early exit from the Copa América, with its elimination confirmed on Monday in a 1-0 defeat to Uruguay.

The key moment in the USMNT’s tournament, however, may have occurred in the team’s previous game against Panama. With the match scoreless just 18 minutes in, Tim Weah was shown a straight red card for inexplicably punching a Panama player in the back of the head.

That sending off would prove costly, as the USMNT went on to lose 2-1 in a game that it was expected to win.

Marsch made an appearance on “FOX Soccer NOW” on Tuesday night, and expressed his shock at how the tournament unfolded for the USMNT.

“I would love to say I’m just focused on what we’re doing here in Canada, but obviously, I’m paying attention, as always, to the U.S. men’s national team and, like you, I’m sad,” the Wisconsin native said . “I’m disappointed by the performances, by the lack of discipline. There’s a lot of things that I think we’ve tried to be about, about the game in the U.S., and we’ve always believed in this group of players.

“Because I’m not there every day, I don’t have my finger on the pulse of exactly what’s going on but, certainly, it’s not what we had expected before this tournament. And somehow, they’ve got to come up with solutions.”

Marsch and U.S. Soccer have a history

Marsch is not exactly a neutral observer in this case, as last summer he interviewed for the USMNT job before U.S. Soccer eventually opted to re-hire Gregg Berhalter.

After he was hired as Canada head coach, Marsch accused the American federation of not treating him well in the coaching search process.

Now, the former Leeds boss says he is happy about how things worked out,

“I’ll tell you: I’m glad I’m here, man,” Marsch said. “Because the people that I work with and the players that I work with, the things that we know that we can achieve together, the support that we have from inside the country, the support system for this entire national team is so positive, so I think it gives us a real chance to develop something and build something and be ready for a big tournament come 2026.”

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