the excellent Azzedine Ounahi<\/a>.<\/p>\nLes Rouges, who had rewritten the record books by earning their first World Cup point, first World Cup victory and first knockout-stage win at this tournament, dominated for long stretches against the Moroccans, ranked seventh in the world, but were left to rue missed chances, costly errors and the absence of talisman Alphonso Davies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very proud to be the Canadian national team coach, and as proud as I am, I\u2019m even more proud of the way our boys played today,\u201d Marsch told reporters.<\/p>\n
Davies missed the match after suffering a hamstring setback, having played only a few minutes in the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want players on the pitch that are 100% to play the game, I wasn\u2019t there yet,\u201d Davies told reporters. \u201cIt was tough sitting there, watching the game, knowing you know that I\u2019m not 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marsch said Canada had shown throughout the tournament that they belonged among the world\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore today, if you would have said your team\u2019s going to play like that, I would have said, \u2018okay, there\u2019s a good chance we\u2019re going to win the match\u2019,’\u201d Marsch said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThought we totally controlled the number seven team in the world in the first half, total control. There was one team on the pitch. And then we weren\u2019t able to make the play.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven at the start of the second half, we were the aggressor, we were the ones that looked more likely to score.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morocco\u2019s opener changed the complexion of the game, Marsch said, allowing the North Africans to sit deeper as Canada chased an equaliser.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s task was made immeasurably harder by the loss of Bayern Munich wing-back Davies, whose World Cup was wrecked by injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t feel right yesterday in training, and we got an MRI, and it was clear, but his hamstring didn\u2019t feel right,\u201d Marsch said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt killed him more than anyone, but I think it was the right decision to preserve him and his career and get him fully healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The American coach urged his players and Canadian soccer as a whole to view the tournament as a springboard rather than a missed opportunity.<\/p>\n
Marsch, who waved away television cameras when he gathered his team on the pitch for a post-game huddle, said Canada\u2019s challenge now was to raise the standards established during the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI challenged them to understand that we can play like this all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cAgainst the best teams in the world, we can be better on the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge is, can we hold that standard for 90 minutes? Can we continue to build the depth of what we\u2019re doing with the team? Can we build a real Canadian DNA into the kind of football we want to play?\u201d<\/p>\n
For Marsch, Canada\u2019s first home World Cup campaign ended with heartbreak but also belief that the programme has entered a new era.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a privilege to have now a Canadian national team competing at levels that had never been dreamed of 10 years ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith that excitement comes higher expectations. Nobody is more disappointed than us, but we have to continue to think about how to get better and commit ourselves to it every time we\u2019re together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a privilege our fans have had, to root a team on like this, that goes after the game, that doesn\u2019t play defensive, that shows that they can be better.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course we have to be in these situations more and more, and then we have to find ways to succeed and we have build from that. I\u2019d rather be us than them, as good as Morocco is, I\u2019d rather be us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jesse Marsch went into hyperbolic overdrive by stating he would \u2018rather be\u2019 Canada than Morocco after managing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[914,42,1100,226822,43,3106,40,38,41,39,4018],"class_list":["post-533466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-front-page","tag-headlines","tag-home-page","tag-jesse-marsch","tag-news","tag-popular","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}