It might not have been the ending Canada wanted at the 2024 Copa America tournament, but it was one that the team should be very proud of.
Despite being ranked as the 48th-best soccer team according to FIFA, Canada advanced to the knockout rounds of the Copa America and finished fourth place overall. They made it further than any other CONCACAF team in the tournament.
Their only stumbles came in a 2-0 loss against the reigning World Cup champion Argentina in the semi-finals and a 2-2 loss on penalties against the 14th-ranked Uruguay in the third-place game on Saturday.
While the loss was heartbreaking, Canada head coach Jesse Marsch was caught on a hot mic giving a passionate speech to his team.
“I couldn’t be prouder,” Marsch was heard saying on the pitch to his players. “[You] should be f*cking proud to be Canadian, to be part of this team.”
Marsch is fired up.
“We were better than France.”
“I couldn’t have imagined we would have played [Uruguay] off the park.”
“I couldn’t be prouder.”
“[You] should be fucking proud to be Canadian, to be part of this team…”#canMNT pic.twitter.com/B7Ee8Fim1w
— Farhan Devji (@farhandevji) July 14, 2024
This is yet another example of the type of passion that Marsch brings to the Canadian program. The 50-year-old former Premier League coach has only been on the job for a few months but has already shown Canadians what he is all about.
Just a few days ago, he had an epic rant about how Copa America treated the Canadian team.
That passion bled over into the post-match media availability. In it, Marsch reiterated how proud he was of his team and how far Canada has come in such a short period with him at the helm.
“I wouldn’t have thought we could play a team like Uruguay and take them to their limit the way we did [on Saturday] at the start of this process,” Marsch said. “We’re way ahead of where I thought we would be, and it means, I told them, now my expectations are even higher moving forward, but that’s a good problem to have.”
The Canadian national team’s focus will now shift toward the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be played on Canadian soil for the first time. Vancouver and Toronto will host games, with Canada playing matches in each city.