{"id":498538,"date":"2026-06-18T05:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/498538\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T05:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:48:08","slug":"marsch-bullish-before-qatar-match-as-canada-prepare-to-welcome-back-alphonso-davies-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/498538\/","title":{"rendered":"Marsch bullish before Qatar match as Canada prepare to welcome back Alphonso Davies | Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asked how he\u2019s handling the scrutiny of coaching a World Cup<\/a> co-host \u2013 where even apparently insignificant comments can end up in the headlines \u2013 Jesse Marsch was quick to flash a grin.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we\u2019ll get through this one without creating news cycles,\u201d Marsch quipped a day before his Canada<\/a> team welcome Qatar to Vancouver for a pivotal Group B clash. The teams are level on one point each after the first round of games, leaving the group wide open.<\/p>\n

Marsch and midfielder Isma\u00ebl Kon\u00e9 refused to look beyond Thursday\u2019s match though. Kon\u00e9 pushed back against one reporter\u2019s insinuation that the players are more anonymous in Vancouver than in Toronto, the site of their draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina last week. But training in British Columbia since Monday has allowed Marsch and his men to ease the pressure of being co-hosts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bigger the event, there\u2019s going to be more distractions,\u201d Marsch said, \u201cso we\u2019ve tried to minimize that. But at the same time, it\u2019s really difficult to prepare for everything, the madness that surrounds \u2026 a World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps one injury update has allowed Marsch to breathe a little easier. Alphonso Davies has trained this week and is available to make his debut at this World Cup, at the stadium where he started his club career. Davies, a regular starter at Bayern Munich when healthy, is Canada\u2019s best player. He is also the face of the program, cropping up (along with Jonathan David) whenever Canadian broadcasts hit a commercial break.<\/p>\n

On the field, Davies will help Canada\u2019s build-up play. He offers an outlet out wide, freeing up space for Kon\u00e9 and Stephen Eust\u00e1quio to pull the strings in the middle of the park. While that points to a more proactive approach than Canada managed against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kon\u00e9 emphasized that the result matters far more than the style \u2013 especially for a nation still searching for its first men\u2019s World Cup win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there will be a lot of people who are proud and who will support us,\u201d Kon\u00e9 said. \u201cSo we\u2019ll want to make a good game, but first of all, it\u2019s to earn three points. We\u2019re in a tournament, every point is important. So we\u2019re going to go get them. If it goes well, we can try to have fun, but most importantly, for 90 minutes, we will try to make sure we get out of this match with victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

While they have never faced Canada, Qatar<\/a> have become familiar to Concacaf nations after participating in the 2021 and 2023 installments of the Gold Cup. That means they\u2019ll be used to the travel across North America \u2013 they played their World Cup opener in the San Francisco Bay Area \u2013 and won\u2019t be afraid of the physical style that\u2019s often synonymous with Concacaf soccer.<\/p>\n

Marsch offered plenty of respect to Qatar. Perhaps he was mindful of the media storm he set off last week<\/a> when he remarked on US players\u2019 attitudes to their national anthem.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, whether it\u2019s been coaching in the Premier League, the Champions League, the different countries I\u2019ve worked in, the one thing you get with me is I kind of just answer questions with what I think,\u201d Marsch admitted. \u201cThat\u2019s not normal. I understand that in this business, a lot of people watch their words a lot more carefully. I choose to think about the teams that I coach and the players that I work with, and try to represent everything that we want to be at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n

In general, Marsch said the atmosphere at camp in Vancouver has been \u201ccalmer\u201d than the build-up to Canada\u2019s opener. With a historic first point secured, all focus is now on the team reaching the knockout round for the first time at a men\u2019s World Cup. With Davies back and others like Kon\u00e9 and David proven game-changers at this level, all that\u2019s left is the work on the field \u2013 with an assist from tens of thousands of supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know this is a football town, Vancouver,\u201d Marsch said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen it many times before, and we expect this place to be rocking, man. I mean, red everywhere, rocking, supporting these guys, supporting their players, their team, their country. These guys will be ready to perform, and we want to make sure that Qatar feels not just the team but the crowd. So show up, be loud, use the echo in the stadium, and make sure that we have a 12th man.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asked how he\u2019s handling the scrutiny of coaching a World Cup co-host \u2013 where even apparently insignificant comments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-498538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}