Canada coach Jesse Marsch expressed disappointment with the United States’ poor performance in the Copa America as the team prepares to face Venezuela in the quarterfinals on Friday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The 50-year-old American coach guided Canada to a 1-0 win over Peru and into the quarterfinals, finishing second to defending champions Argentina in Group A. The U.S., meanwhile, lost 2-1 to Panama and then 1-0 to Uruguay, failing to advance from the group stage.
“I’d like to say I’m just focused on what’s going on in Canada, but of course my attention is on the U.S. Men’s National Team as always. I’m just as sad as you all are,” the coach told FOX Soccer Now.
“I’m disappointed in the performance and the lack of discipline. There’s a lot that I think we’ve tried to embody in the game in the U.S. and we’ve always believed in these players.”
The former Leeds United manager added that Gregg Berhalter’s side need to find solutions to their problems.
“I’m not there every day so I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but it’s definitely not what I expected coming into this tournament,” Marsh said.
Marsh was thought to be the front-runner to take the U.S. national team after Berhalter’s contract expires after the 2022 World Cup, but Marsh’s agent surprisingly announced that Marsh would not take over as head coach in June 2023. The next day, Berhalter was rehired by the U.S. Soccer Association.
“I have a lot of respect for U.S. Soccer, but I went through a process with them, which I won’t go into detail about, but I wasn’t treated very well during that process,” Marsh said after losing his U.S. national team job.
Canada will be hoping to reach the semifinals with a win against Venezuela, which topped Group B by winning all three games.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
