“We pushed Venezuela to the limit”: Jesse Marsch on Canada’s historic qualification

This Friday, the Canadian national team made history by reaching the semifinals of the 2024 Copa América in just its first participation in this tournament, beating Venezuela in the penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw in the 90 minutes of the match.

This means that the team coached by Jesse Marsch is among the four best in the continental tournament and will face Argentina in the semi-final on July 9.

Marsch spoke after the match against Venezuela and gave his analysis of how his team was able to control the match until it went to penalties and then qualify.

“Our goal is to try to push the teams to their limits and see if they can handle us,” said the American coach, who said that “we push Venezuela to its limits.”

During the match, Canada dominated Venezuela for most of the 90 minutes. The North American team could have scored more goals, but they lacked definition. Something that the coach is clear about.

“People will talk about whether we should have scored more goals and whatever. We should have scored more goals. However, they were two pretty solid performances – against Chile and Venezuela – against very good opponents,” Marsch concluded.

On the other hand, the coach is already looking ahead to the semi-final match against Argentina. In this match, he believes Canada will have to play an almost perfect match to have a chance against the current Copa America and World Cup champion.

“We are proud of how we performed, but we know that we need a lot more to have a chance of beating Argentina,” Marsch said.

“We will be positive, we will be aggressive. We will not sit back and try to just defend. We will try to play the way we want to play and see if we can maintain that. We must play the best game possible,” concluded the coach.

Keep reading:
· Canada defends Concacaf and qualifies for the Copa America semi-finals [Video]
· Marcelo Bielsa praised Brazil’s good form: “It’s a country with many extremes”
· Lionel Scaloni left with a bittersweet taste after Argentina’s victory: “Winning like this is not enjoyable”