MATCH REACTION 🎙️ Marsch embraces learning from mistakes in CanMNT 🇨🇦 draw vs. Iceland
After Saturday's 2-2 draw with Iceland, the Canadian men's national team has just three more games to play before the World Cup.
As the runway rapidly disappears, Canada might've liked to be more comprehensively dominant against a side more than 40 spots below them in the FIFA World Rankings. Jesse Marsch didn't get an attacking explosion, but what he did see could nonetheless prove useful to his group come June.
For the first time since Marsch took over as coach, Canada conceded twice in the first half. Tajon Buchanan's second-half red card was Canada's third straight 'A'-level match with a sending-off (and fourth in their last eight) — that's the bad news. The good news, though, is that for the first time in Marsch's tenure, Canada fought back from two goals down to get a point.
"Every moment that we’ve talked about is preparing us for the World Cup," Canada goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair said postmatch.
"Obviously we don’t want to be in that situation, but you could go down 2-0, and you’ve got to be able to fight back to get a result, whether it’s a point or three points."
Canada encountered a number of situations on Saturday, each of which could make or break a World Cup campaign depending on how they respond. They came back from halftime with much more energy after a sluggish first half headlined by individual mistakes and ineffective attacking sequences.
Certainly, Canada need more goals from open play; they'll be desperate for a few on Tuesday against Tunisia. However, the fact that Jonathan David scored two penalties — each of them buried confidently into the same bottom-right corner — is encouraging. So, too, is the way Canada drew the spot-kicks, by working the ball into the box in ways they'd been unable to in the first half.
Marsch's demeanour post-match was calm, and may have been so even if Canada hadn't completed the comeback. He acknowledged that several players in the group are still auditioning for places in the World Cup squad, but he doesn't want players to be afraid of a single mistake crushing their opportunity.
"The players understand that every moment we're together right now is an opportunity to make a continued impression — a last impression," Marsch said. "But I don't want them to feel like there's so much pressure on them I want them to just continue to try to put to practice the things that we want to see."
Case in point: Kamal Miller. The Portland Timbers defender had a frustrating game, and was primarily at fault for the first Iceland goal as his soft back-pass went right to striker Orri Steinn Oskarsson. Marsch did label it a mistake, but in his eyes, the problem wasn't the quality of Miller's pass, but rather the fact he tried it at all.
GOAL🇮🇸
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) March 28, 2026
Iceland have taken an early lead over the #CanMNT, as Orri Óskarsson capitalizes on a big mistake from Kamal Miller with a cool finish on a breakaway
🔴 Watch LIVE on OneSoccer and TSN pic.twitter.com/TOfUWenvTo
"It's not just that it leads to the goal," Marsch explained. "The mistake was that he should play forward, because that's a major principle of ours. We knew that Iceland, any time we played back, was going to put pressure. We wanted to play forward, we want to make mistakes playing forward, not mistakes playing backwards.
"The way I think about the game is to calibrate what are good plays and what are bad plays. Because often, a completed pass backwards, in my mind, is a mistake versus an incomplete forward, where we still have an opportunity to counter-press, still have an opportunity to win it back. That's where I know that Kamal felt that he let himself down. But his response in the game, and the way that he played in the rest of the match, helped us get back in the game."
That explanation illustrated why Marsch may embrace the rough spots of Saturday's game. He will undoubtedly now go to his team and show them this example, encouraging them to play forward next time.
As for Buchanan's red card, Marsch reiterated that he's not concerned. He would be more worried if Buchanan's, or Ismaël Koné's against Venezuela, or Ali Ahmed's against Ecuador, had been more reckless tackles. That said, the cards are stacking up, and just one can change the course of a whole tournament, as Canada learned at the Gold Cup against Guatemala.
"We're not a dirty, nasty team," Marsch added. "We work hard. We're physical, we play hard, but we're not a dirty team. I'm not worried about developing a reputation, but certainly, cards like that can change momentum in tournaments, so we have to find a way to eliminate picking up those red cards."
Tuesday night against Tunisia will be another chance for Marsch to test out his team, but he may ask for more urgency from the group. He told media on Saturday that he doesn't anticipate making massive changes to the starting XI — four or five, he guessed, with Max Crépeau in goal being one of them. With Buchanan now suspended, Liam Millar or Marcelo Flores may get a significant chance on the right wing.
All in all, Canada were not at their best against Iceland, which might not be a huge surprise given how many usual starters are currently injured. However, Marsch is generally happy with the progress he's seen, even if it isn't manifesting in open-play scoring just yet.
