One Goal Leads to the Next: Marsch, Canada Rev Up For Switzerland

It’s good to have goals.

What’s true in the confines of the 90 minutes is equally true in any other situation, whether it is winning a single match, putting the side in the best position for short term success, or strategizing a longer term objective.

On the eve of the biggest match in men’s Canadian soccer history, or the next one as Stephen Eustáquio would put it, Jesse Marsch, in the midst of 30 minutes of conversation laid out all three of the goals he and his side have in front of them.

With that 6-0 win over Qatar last week Canada have virtually secured qualification to the knockout round at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. A draw against Switzerland on Wednesday would seal top spot in Group B.

It’s simpler than it sounds, of course: a side cannot just play for a draw.

“All of us, as players and coaches, have been in situations like this, where a draw is enough,” levelled Marsch on Tuesday. “But the worst way to get the draw is to play for a draw. You have to play for a win. In the later stages you can use your substitutes and you can use tactics to manage the result. We are going to start this match with the mentality and the tactics to win. We’re not going to be overly conservative, we’re not going to be overly aggressive, we’re going to be us.”

“One of the best parts of this team is who we are is pretty well built in,” he underlined. “Even if I showed up and said, ‘We’re going to play a different kind of match than what we normally would, they would all look at me like, ‘Coach, what are we doing?’ We will have subtle adjustments, like we always do, for the match plan, for what the opponent brings, but we are going to play to who we are. We’re going to play to our strengths and we’re going to try to impose ourselves on the opponent.”

That’s job one, the immediate.

It’s sets up job two.

Should Canada top the group, it ensures that the Round of 32 fixture, regardless of who the opponent is, will be played in Vancouver, on home soil, in front of home fans, near where the side has set up their World Cup base.

“Staying here in Vancouver is definitely our number one goal,” said Marsch. “As soon as I found [the format of the tournament] out, I said, ‘Okay, we have a clear objective, we want to win the group.’”

“Two years ago, everybody thought I was crazy, right?” he continued. “But this is where I expected us to be. When we drew Switzerland, we thought, ‘Okay, let’s position ourselves to make sure that we are competing for our goal to stay in Vancouver in that last match,’ and so we’re here and we’re going to be ready for it.”

Job two is keep the momentum going, as long as possible. That’s the short term.

Should Canada top the group, win that Round of 32 match in Vancouver, their reward would be a Round of 16 fixture again in Vancouver. Small advantages matter immensely in moments like these and each of those has to be worth a percentage or two.

Host nations have surfed that wave at the World Cup before. Admittedly there have never been three at the same time before, but for argument’s sake, assume that possibility holds true.

Just two games into this experience the sheer number of moments Canada has experienced is innumerable. There are the big ones, sure, the games, the goals, the preamble and postscripts before and after, but there are countless little, more personal ones that bring everyone along.

The more rounds, the more moments Marsch and his side can create on this stage, the more impact will be had on job three, the long term.

“I’ve often remarked on reasons why I took this job,” inhaled Marsch. “One was the player pool, the belief I had in them, and the effect I could have on them. One was Kevin Blue, the professionalism that he outlined to me very early on in our relationship and what his vision was on how to really change the sport in the country. And the other was that opportunity to actually build the sport.”

“I had been a club team coach in Montreal, I knew some of the positives, some of the negatives, and then some of the opportunities on how we could grow the sport,” he continued. “I felt strongly that I could, through my personality and through the football that I believe in, help continue to evolve the sport in the country to become bigger and to become something that people would really want to be a part of – that’s turned out to be way more true and possible than I had ever dreamed.”

Marsch, who originally signed in May 2024 through the current World Cup, was re-signed before the tournament began. He will remain in his position over he next four-year cycle as well.

“I wanted to continue everything that has been started and I just didn’t feel like two years was enough to really create the kind of impact that we could in the sport,” he outlined. “The timing was good: the players now either have confidence in me or they’re stuck with me. Either way, the relationships we have and the kind of team that we’ve become has been a reflection of all of us giving everything we have to the national team program and the pride we have in representing Canada. That, I think, has really galvanized everybody.”

One goal folds into the next which lays the groundwork for the ultimate aim.

“Everything that Kevin Blue, Peter Augruso, and I are working toward is building a foundation for the sport for the future,” said Marsch. “Everything from the youth national teams to residencies, men’s and women’s teams aligned, opportunity for young coaches, young players, young analysts, everything.”

“We want to make this a footballing nation, a soccer nation,” he emphasized. “We, as a nation, as a federation, are focused on growing this sport through these players and through this team.”

Canada will learn, no, determine their fate in a few short hours. Switzerland stands in their way.

“When people asked me two years ago, ‘What will be success in 2026?’ my answer was to help this team believe that they can beat anyone,” set up Marsch. “And so here we are. At the precipice of this important match to win the group and stay here in Vancouver.”

“The best part about it is I haven’t had to convince these guys that this is where we should be. The internal expectation is clear. We know about all the external energy around the team, but for us the most important thing is to control what we can control and to perform the way we can perform and to make sure that we don’t play the occasion, that we play the match and we play against this opponent – that our concentration to do exactly the things that make us good and exactly the things that can tilt the match in our favour is lasered in,” he continued. “The team has that right now.”

“The first game was a little bit of shock value, the home World Cup, the first half it took us a little bit to get our feet underneath us. It wasn’t a bad performance, but it wasn’t the performance I know we can play. If you look at the last three halves, that’s our team,” Marsch closed. “It will be really important for us to play like that and even better, because that’s what is going to be required against Switzerland.”