June 23 – Jesse Marsch has been cleared to resume duty on the touchline for Canada’s final Gold Cup group game at the Shell Energy Stadium in Houston tonight.
Marsch was serving a two-match ban following his red card in Canada’s third-place match at the Nations League finals against the US in March where he refused to leave the pitch and was abusive towards match officials.
The first match of that ban was served in Canada’s opening thrashing of Honduras in Group B of the Gold Cup in Vancouver. But Marsch was again the centre of conflict with Concacaf opening disciplinary proceeding “to investigate the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) and its head coach, Jesse Marsch, for incidents that occurred during the 2025 Gold Cup match between Canada and Honduras on June 17, 2025.”
The suspicion was that Marsch was communicating to the Canada bench from a corporate suite in the stadium where he was pictured on a laptop and taking notes. He was also involved in an altercation with Concacaf officials who asked him to move with the charge being that he then became abusive.
“The Disciplinary Committee found no clear evidence that Jesse Marsch disregarded the competition’s rules regarding suspended match officials, therefore, he has been cleared of any wrongdoing,” said a Concacaf statement.
While Marsch has been cleared of breaking the rules and protocols, the Canadian Soccer Association hasn’t. The national federation was already skating on thin ice following the drone-spying scandal at the Olympics with their women’s team that turned out to be more than a one-off incident.
Concacaf have found that they have broken the rules again saying: “The Disciplinary Committee has fined the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) an undisclosed amount for breaching security protocols for accredited delegation officials and for failing to comply with anti-doping procedures by not providing the required representative for the halftime doping control draw.”
Small things perhaps but they add up for a federation that was already under a warning regarding rules. The scale of the fine has not been disclosed.
Marsch served the second match of his ban at Canada’s second Gold Cup group game in Houston on Saturday, a game Canada threw away in the last quarter as they lost control of the ball and their shape, allowing Curaçao, who had paced themselves towards a final flourish, to equalise in added time.
While Canada still top their group, they now have a job to do against El Salvador to guarantee progression to the quarter final.
“We let ourselves down in the second half (against Curaçao),” said Marsch. “We’ve talked about it. We’re going to learn from it. We’re going to be better for it and we’re going to make sure that we don’t have any more of those kinds of performances and experiences. And that we understand that in all moments exactly what games are and that we’re up for it and we’re ready to meet the challenges and set the tone for how we want to play.”
Marsch has brought a lot more intensity to the Canadian national team’s style of play, based around a hard and fast press. That has led to improved results for a group of very talented players who looked as though they might not win a championship title that their talent warranted. They still haven’t won one yet, but Marsch is reckoned to be the guy who will change that.
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