Jesse Marsch wants to see more from Canada’s men’s soccer team.
While the head coach liked much of what the squad displayed in their first games following this summer’s World Cup, at the end of the international window, he told the group there’s still ample work to be done.
“My message to the team was that the performance was good. It was like a seven-and-a-half, maybe pushing toward an eight, right?” Marsch said on Tuesday after the Canadians fell 1-0 to the United States in a friendly matchup in St. Paul, Minn.
“I don’t want to be overly critical because I think there’s a lot of good going on. It’s just you’d like to see a team on the pitch that’s more decisive and ready to take moments. And we’re not quite there yet.”
It’s been a historic year for Marsch and his team.
Canada earned its first win in a men’s World Cup when it thumped Qatar 6-0 in Vancouver, then took its first win in the tournament’s knockout round, defeating South Africa 1-0 in the round of 32. The storybook run ended with Morocco taking a 3-0 victory in the round of 16.
Several Canadians posted performances across the tournament that earned them big moves, with striker Promise David heading to Brighton & Hove Albion in England’s Premier League, midfielder Nathan Saliba joining La Liga’s Villareal in Spain and vice-captain Stephen Eustaquio signing with Swansea City in the English Championship.
Marsch called 17 athletes who donned the Maple Leaf during the World Cup run — and nine who did not — into a national team camp last month for three friendlies.
The Canadians blanked Chile 1-0 in Toronto on Sept. 26, then took a 2-0 decision over Peru in Montreal on Saturday.
Tuesday’s tilt with the U.S. was billed as a measuring-stick matchup, an opportunity for Canada to see where it could still grow.
The visitors had early chances, including off a pair of shots from winger Jacob Shaffleburg in the 16th minute, but couldn’t finish.
“I thought we controlled a lot of the match,” Marsch said. “We just didn’t turn our good play and our organization into enough chances and into goals.”
The American attack appeared to take a hit in the 20th minute when Justin Ellis went down after colliding with Eustaquio on a challenge.
Ellis, a 19-year-old Orlando City SC talent, stayed on the ground for several moments holding his right ankle before getting up and hobbling off the field. He returned to the game minutes later.
The U.S. got its first real chance of the night in the 29th minute when Alex Freeman fired off a shot from the corner of the six-yard box and Ellis darted in to put the ball in the back of the Canada net for a 1-0 lead.
“It’s basically their first time down the pitch and they get a goal,” Marsch said. “And, look, they put a good play together. We don’t think we defended that well enough.”
There was more bad news for the Canadians 11 minutes later when Eustaquio fell to the turf hard following a challenge by Gio Reyna. The Swansea midfielder appeared to suffer an upper-body injury on the play, but stayed in the game temporarily before Marsch replaced him with Mathieu Choinière at halftime.
Marsch said in his post-game press conference that Eustaquio felt a “crack” in his shoulder.
“We’re hopeful that it’s not bad,” the coach said. ”He’s at the hospital getting an X-ray, so it’s possible that it’s a broken clavicle or something like that.”
Canada struggled through the final minutes of the first half, giving up multiple opportunities off of set plays, but managed to keep its deficit to a single goal heading into the locker rooms.
The Canadians came within inches of equalizing in the 63rd minute when defender Luc de Fougerolles collected the ball off a free kick and unleashed a rocket.
U.S. goalkeeper Brian Schwake got his fingertips on it and sent the shot glancing off the bottom of the crossbar.
De Fougerolles moved to Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake on loan from English Premier League side Fulham in early September, and had a solid run for Canada over the three friendlies.
“We need him. We need him to now grow into a big player, right?” Marsch said of the 20-year-old centre back.
“And I know that he’s considered young. Well, Luc’s played for us now for two years, and he’s played in the World Cup, and I don’t consider him young. I consider him an important player in the team, and I need him to act like a leader and an organizer and someone with big personality. And so second half (Tuesday), I think we saw more of that.”
De Fougerolles isn’t the only player the coach is challenging to take another step.
The entire group needs to grow if the team is going to achieve its goals, he said.
“I told them that it’s not enough to just come into the national team and work really hard and care about each other and give everything to each other,” Marsch said. ”It’s about personality, understanding, savviness and managing matches.”
Not enough of the Canadian players currently show those attributes with their club teams, he added.
“Too many of them go into their clubs and allow other people to be leaders, allow other people to be vocal,” Marsch said. ”And I told them that as much as we talked before about needing to push the overall group and the understanding of what the highest level looks like … now it’s about also the leadership part, the psychological part, the emotional part, to make sure that we’re developing that.
“Because we can’t just look like a group of hard workers that don’t put it together enough.”
The Canadians return to action in November when they take on Guatemala in a two-legged CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal.
Guatemala will host the first game on Nov. 13 before the series shifts to Toronto on Nov. 16.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 6, 2026.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press
