![\"Jesse](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/571d88c04bf85a3444bcb9abf2acd20cd08056b00e223675daa7c61ff84f8b65.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nCanadian coach Jesse Marsch admits he \u201chad to beg\u201d US players to sing their own national anthem in the past, ahead of both teams\u2019 World Cup openers.<\/p>\n
Marsch is the first US native to lead the Canadian side, after being appointed to the job in 2024.<\/p>\n
A number of his key players, while representing Canada, spend most of their time elsewhere, usually in the US playing Major League Soccer. <\/p>\n
Speaking at his pre-game press conference, Marsch however said he\u2019s found the Canadian players all have much more pride in their country than corresponding US players, back when he was a part of their coaching staff.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s had far fewer issues getting them to show pride for their nation, in a pointed blow to the fellow host nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first came, I had to learn about what it meant to be Canadian,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a leader in this sport, I\u2019ve always tried to create an environment where our differences make us stronger, not weaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery one of these boys is incredibly Canadian and the pride they have in putting on the jersey, representing the country, hearing the national anthem \u2026 in the US sometimes we had to beg players to sing the national anthem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys belt it out to the top of their lungs because they want to show the country how proud they are to be here, to be Canadians and to represent what Canada is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marsch added that a home World Cup is \u201cspecial\u201d and that they\u2019re excited for the pressure that comes with that. <\/p>\n
\u201cNobody here is afraid of that. Actually, this is why we\u2019re doing it. Yeah, it\u2019s responsibility, yeah, it\u2019s pressure, but that\u2019s what we want, it\u2019s meaningful,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI love sitting on that coach\u2019s box when the stadium\u2019s full, the pressure is on and everyone thinks you\u2019re an idiot.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jesse Marsch of Canada.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadian coach Jesse Marsch admits he \u201chad to beg\u201d US players to sing their own national anthem in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-732607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}