Canada yet to live up to swagger

We have known for some time that the Canadian men’s national soccer team can talk the talk.

When they qualified for a first World Cup in 36 years, the players styled themselves the “Kings of CONCACAF.” When they got there, ex-manager John Herdman’s smug disrespect of Croatia nearly caused a diplomatic incident.

More recently, head coach Jesse Marsch boasted that his 2025 Nations League squad was the “strongest” in the country’s history; only the trophy would do. Last month he stated the team would not be satisfied with the Gold Cup “unless we win it.”

Well, they didn’t, and they didn’t win the Nations League, either. Croatia beat them 4-1 in Qatar, where they were CONCACAF’s worst representatives.

Herdman is long gone; Marsch served a two-match suspension at the Gold Cup, and Canada’s lone tournament triumph in a quarter century was achieved at a friendly event they concocted, hosted and designed for themselves to win.

Oh, they can talk all right. When it comes to walking the walk, their route often ends abruptly at the first hurdle.

The latest trip-up was what should have been a straightforward Gold Cup quarterfinal against Guatemala. It even started well enough, with Canada dictating much of the play against a quality opponent, only for two yellow cards in the space of nine minutes to derail a campaign that, according to the bluster, was supposed to end this weekend instead of last.

Unfortunately, it was one of Canada’s more reliable players, Jacob Shaffelburg, who picked up both bookings in first-half stoppage time, leaving his team disadvantaged for the entire second period.

The Nashville winger had been hacked at, kicked and generally abused during the final group stage match against El Salvador. Maybe it was frustration; perhaps he just wanted to assert himself. Whatever the rationale, he morphed from the bullied to the bully in the quarterfinal, as did most of the players in white shirts and red shorts.

It’s not really necessary for us to rehash the result. Canada crumbled under the pressure, conceded an equalizer and lost on penalties.

Sometimes that’s just the way it goes.

When looking back on the four games they played at the competition, Marsch and his staff might even find some happy take-aways.

Niko Sigur, who earned his sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth caps at the Gold Cup, impressed as both a right-back and central midfielder. And although he missed the decisive penalty, Luc de Fougerolles provided speed, distribution and smarts from his defensive position.

The thing is, when you’ve announced it’s either win or bust, declared yourself a tournament favourite and then beat your chest as you got off the plane, you’ve foregone the excuse of construing failure as a bit of bad luck.

What’s more, you take on a certain reputation when this sort of thing happens repeatedly.

Canada’s national team can rightly think they’re one of the best in CONCACAF. What they may not realize is they’re also one of the most disliked. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially when the bad feelings are generated by fear.

Only, they’re not.

No, the contempt in which Canada are held has more to do with their own sense of entitlement, a perception of arrogance and some quite evident petulance.

To be clear, confidence — even an abundance of it, a swagger — is a key ingredient in a good team. It’s commendable the Canadian men have developed so much of it so quickly.

Having said that, proclaiming yourselves regional “kings” and declaring you can “be winners at the World Cup” will annoy just about everyone else when you yourselves have won exactly nothing.

Lecturing the opposition and officials about fair play isn’t helpful, either.

The old stereotype of every team south of the United States taking dives, feigning injury and sneakily hurting the honest and upright Canadians is not only played out, but also a tired, race-based trope. It’s also one that backfires when the Canadians are the bruisers, which happened in the Guatemala match.

Wrapping it all together, and transforming disdain into ridicule, is a penchant for whining, complaining and wildly remonstrating that starts with the manager and, more and more, is seeping down to the players.

Marsch began the Gold Cup in the press box because of a suspension he was served in the Nations League Finals. After losing his temper at a match official in the group stage opener, he nearly earned himself another one.

When “Canada are under investigation” is a more familiar headline than “Canada have advanced to the final,” you’ve got a problem.

Some of that problem can be addressed on the training pitch, in the video room and at coach’s meetings.

As just one example, the past few weeks revealed a tactical naiveté that showed an open door to Guatemala the moment Canada went down to 10 men. This sort of thing can be dealt with relatively easily, provided Marsch shows some flexibility.

In fact, many of Canada’s shortcomings — strategic and behavioural — could be reversed overnight with a bit of humility.

They don’t have to act like they’ve never seen a World Cup before, which is precisely what happened at the last one. But they shouldn’t be expecting their opponents bow down to them, either.

Not when they’re still to earn the respect they seem to crave. Not when they repeatedly show that, for all the talk, they’ve yet to walk the walk.

jerradpeters@gmail.com

@jerradpeters.bsky.social