Who is Jesse Marsch, the Canadian coach who does not hide from challenges and dreams of eliminating Scaloneta

Jesse March He is not afraid of big challenges. She showed it by having the guts to take on the role of coach. Canada national team with 38 days left until the start of the America Cup and with only two friendlies to prepare the team. It did not bother him to know that behind his arrival there is massive financing from Canadian clubs that have a percentage in the decision-making. He also didn’t mind when he was chosen to do nothing less than supplant Marcelo Bielsa In England. That passion for impossible challenges allows them today to be among the four best teams on the continent and dream of delivering the blow of eliminating the Argentine National Team in the semifinals.

Born in Wisconsin, United States, 50 years back, but residing in Tuscany, Italy, Jesse Marsch is one of the fundamentalists who deny the theory that every coach needs an adaptation process at the beginning of each of their cycles. The growth of his team was far from being progressive when a 0-4 win at the hands of the Netherlands and a 0-0 draw against France were the only tests he could do since he took office on May 13. .

After leaving Venezuela behind in the quarterfinals, the Princeton University graduate took Canada, located 49th in the FIFA ranking, to be the surprise of the Copa América by qualifying for the semifinals in its first participation. Always under his motto of “play bravely“, he seeks to get his teams to play in the same way in which he gives instructions close to the white line.

Now, he is not afraid to face the Argentine National Team again, regardless of the fact that they lost 2-0 when they faced each other in the group stage. “We are going to play how we want. The match against Argentina will have to be the best we have ever played, and even then it may not be enough. “Let’s try it,” he said at a press conference during the last hours, without forgetting that under a physical game, of friction and pressure, he already knew how to complicate the world champion team in sections.

Likewise, the performance of the North American team is not surprising in the intimacy of the Canadian federation. This is what they expected when they went to great lengths to hire Marsch, whom they consider an elite coach and connoisseur par excellence of the MLS, both as a player (he won three MLS Cups and four US Opens in 14 seasons he played) and as a coach (champion in 2015). Taking into account that when 14 of the 26 players mentioned belong to the American league, the arrival of the coach demonstrates his influence on the field.

Apparently one of the most delicate moments in its history, with a deficit of 4 million dollars as a result of the low funding that the government grants to football, the Canadian Federation was flirting and evaluating possibilities for seven months to be able to hire and pay the contract that Marsch intended.

The need to grow in football after having played the 2022 World Cup led the leaders to establish an agreement with the three national clubs that participate in the MLS (Montreal CF, Toronto CF and Vancouver Whitecaps) so that contribute a total of 1.5 million and thus finance the salary of the star coacha benchmark in North American soccer during the last decade.

This subsidy methodology leads to the three clubs own a percentage of the decision-making in the coach’s cycle. Something totally atypical. And beyond the fact that six players on the squad belong to said teams, Jesse admitted that it was far from being a factor that conditioned him.

“No coach would accept a job with that kind of stipulation. I think what it shows, really, is that there is unity behind my appointment and the fact that the people who are in leadership positions were really motivated to get this done.” “It motivated me,” replied the coach, already recognized both for his style of play and also for his rebellious and outspoken personality, which led him to be considered a “traitor” in his country of origin for signing with a rival team. .

For his part, that full trust that Marsch receives from the red-and-white team has already borne fruit in his first six games. “Jesse is a transformational leader who will drive the progress of our men’s national teamand Canadian football in general, as we enter the most important moment in the national history of our sport,” they stated from the Federation, happy that the economic effort was not in vain.

Jesse was able to pursue a career as a player with some recognition at the local level. He passed by DC United, Chicago Fire and the extinct Chivas USA, where he retired in 2010. He immediately began his career on the substitute benches. He first had the unbeatable chance of becoming field assistant for the United States National Teambeing part of the coaching staff at the World Cup in South Africa.

From that moment on, Jesse showed himself to be a fan of coaching. He topped it off in recent weeks by making a Carlos Bilardo style maneuver: after taking over in Canada, He personally visited all the players who would compete in the Copa América to get to know them and advance the adaptation process. “It’s been a crazy few days. “I’m trying to go here, there and everywhere and a lot of logistical things to solve to see the players,” he told The Guardian newspaper.

Two years after his position as field assistant, the sum of knowledge would motivate Marsch to begin his career as a coach by taking charge of the Montreal CF. However, his cycle lasted only one season and he came to think that technical direction was not his thing. For that reason, it is that He began his career as a commentator on sports broadcasts until 2015, when he received the proposal to take charge of the Red Bull New York. And Jesse doesn’t know what it’s like to reject challenges.

His immersion in the Red Bull group was what allowed the American coach to become what he is today. In the team based in The Big Apple he was an MLS champion and in 2018 he had the chance to emigrate to the Red Bull Salzburg Austria.

In Europe he had to fight against the prejudices that he carried due to his nationality, characterized by having little soccer culture. But the sidelong glances only fueled Marsch: he became local champion in the two seasons he was at the club. Although he had an undoubted advantage on his team: his striker was none other than Erling Haalandstill a young Norwegian who was already beginning to dazzle the world with goals.

The increasingly bigger back that the DT was forming led him to take the biggest step within the franchise. He took the reins of RB Leipzigreplacing Julian Nagelsmann, idol of the institution and current coach of Germany. Although his playing style could not take hold and after 20 games he was fired. And if the burden of impersonating figures didn’t scare him, Jesse demonstrated it again when he took charge of the Leeds of England in 2022. His predecessor? Marcelo Bielsaa performer who managed to promote the club to the Premier League after 16 years.

On British soil, Marsch managed to save Leeds from relegation, but in his second season he would be fired after not convincing the leaders and fans with his style of play, who considered that he “failed.”

The accumulated experience, with the 2026 World Cup in sight, made the coach desire to return to his country’s team, although this time in the role of coach. However, his flirtations did not yield results. He was overcome by some resentment when Gregg Berhalterwith whom he had several encounters during his time as a commentator, took up the position – which he still holds – in the middle of last year, a few days after Jesse was fired from Leeds.

It was the culminating moment that led him to stand on the opposite sidewalk. “They didn’t treat me very well in the process“, he said in a CBS podcast. This is how his desire to be present at the next World Cup convinced him to come to Canada, without caring about the criticism and a possible closure of doors for life, which fell to him from the United States.

Knowing that his participation in the World Cup is guaranteed under the role of host, Jesse hopes to make his team grow not only from the soccer side. “I’ve talked to many of you about the difference between being arrogant Americans and humble, hard-working Canadians.. I don’t want this to sound like an insult, but It’s the philosophy of what I’m trying to build here.“he emphasized in a presentation video.

Now, he seeks to mix that deep knowledge of North American soccer with his European experience so that Canada can reach the final of the Copa América in its first participation. Your plan? “Control Messi better. In the first meeting we gave him too much freedom. That will be very important“. The compact defensive block, with a lot of intensity and quick reflexes to look for the counterattack that printed and complicated the Scaloneta, seems to occupy a second order in the call to make history.