At the end of a dark week for Canada Soccer, it’s up to the men’s national team to provide a little light.
Canada plays Suriname away on Friday (6 p.m. ET) in the first leg of its CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal matchup, with the return leg slated for Nov. 19 at BMO Field in Toronto.
The on-field action is the first since the women’s team — normally the jewel of the national program — saw head coach Bev Priestman let go earlier this week after a damning report on the 2024 Paris Olympics drone scandal was returned by an independent investigator.
Speaking from Paramaribo on Thursday, Jesse Marsch, the men’s head coach, expressed relief that the long-awaited report had come out.
“I look at it as an opportunity now for us to really start to put that in the background and move forward in a way where we can only be thinking about positive things,” he said.
Marsch and his side can begin that turn by claiming the games in front of them. The winner of the home-and-away series will earn two significant prizes: a Nations League semifinal berth in Los Angeles in March, and automatic entry to the 2025 Gold Cup in June.
“We’re excited for the challenge,” Marsch said of teams that have met only twice in their shared histories, the last a 4-0 win for Canada during World Cup qualifying in 2021.
“We’ve played a lot of, since I’ve been here, big opponents and familiar opponents,” he said. “Now we have one that’s a little unfamiliar.”
Suriname will not need to worry about being found out, at least by drones.
WATCH | Bev Priestman out as women’s national coach:
Bev Priestman is out as the head coach of Canada’s women’s soccer team, following an independent report into drone spying at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Canada Soccer says assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi are also gone.
Spying ‘not permitted’ under Marsch
The report cleared Marsch of any suspicions of continuing Canada’s previously unchecked spying program, and in fact found that he told his staff explicitly that spying “would not be permitted” under his watch.
But the investigator confirmed that Priestman, who had been suspended since the Olympics, “directed, approved and condoned” the illegal filming of New Zealand’s preparations.
The men’s team was also implicated in the redacted report, with suggestions that the spying program was initiated under John Herdman, the former head coach of the women’s team and Marsch’s predecessor with the men.
Honduras and Panama both accused the men’s team of spying on their training sessions in 2021 and 2022, respectively, allegations that were left unproven.
A source told Radio-Canada that Herdman was obsessed enough with tactical espionage to spy even on lightly regarded Saint Kitts and Nevis.
“They were fishermen,” the source said. “When we found out, we were laughing amongst ourselves.”
The Canadians, ranked 35th in the world by FIFA, should likewise handle the Surinamese, ranked 136th , despite a hot and stormy forecast that will favour the home side.
Canada captain and Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies has also declined to make the long trip to South America, citing fatigue.
He was replaced by Sam Adekugbe, who played a pivotal role in Canada’s qualifying run to the 2022 World Cup but hasn’t featured much lately.
Tajon Buchanan, another key contributor, is also part of the Canadian roster for the first time since he broke his leg during a training session last July.
The return of those familiar faces is emblematic of a growing seriousness in Marsch’s approach, with the 2026 men’s World Cup fast approaching.
He’s expanded his player pool and frequently offered chances to new talent. Those roster experiments have come to a decisive end. For the first time in Marsch’s tenure, the 23 men he’s brought to Suriname have all been in camp at least once before.
“That was intentional,” Marsch said. “We just want to continue to build our idea of who we are, what we’re trying to become, how we handle moments, how we perform.”
Now the focus is forward, he has announced.
A new, better Canada starts here.