Canada's Resolve Unshaken After Curaçao Draw: "Mentality Intact"

Written by Patrick Echatah

The Canadian men’s national team, after 25 years of pursuing a trophy, is no stranger to setbacks, even when things appear to be going well. This was evident in their recent Concacaf Gold Cup match.

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Following an impressive 6-0 victory over Honduras to kick off the tournament, Canada faced Curaçao on Saturday at Houston Dynamo FC’s Shell Energy Stadium.

Despite Nathan Saliba of CF Montréal scoring an early goal from a set piece in the ninth minute—his second goal in as many games—Canada struggled to gain momentum.

They found it difficult to create scoring opportunities, and Curaçao ultimately equalized in second-half stoppage time with a goal from Jeremy Antonisse, resulting in a 1-1 draw.

“We’ve got to learn from these types of games,” assistant coach Mauro Biello said after the match, with Canada head coach Jesse Marsch serving the second game of his two-match ban.

“We let it get a little bit too wide open. We gave away silly fouls, and they were just pumping balls into the box, and we had a hard time dealing with second balls and set pieces. These are things that we have to continue to work on and be prepared to do better in the next game.”

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This is Canada’s first major challenge since Jesse Marsch took over as head coach. It’s reminiscent of their struggles in the 2023 Gold Cup under former coach John Herdman, where they had to battle back after drawing against Guadeloupe and Guatemala to advance from the group stage.

Despite having a stronger team now and new leadership, they find themselves in a similar tough spot. “[Curaçao] were able to get out of situations, and put our back line in difficulty with long balls, and then we weren’t able to close the second phase,” Biello added.

“We need to do a better job of not giving up fouls and then controlling the game in many ways. A lot of these guys are young players, but they’ve got to learn from these types of situations.”

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