Canada 2-0 El Salvador
June 24 – Fresh from emerging from a Concacaf-imposed timeout, Canadian head coach Jesse Marsch returned to the technical area at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, knowing any more misbehaviour would send him back to the naughty room. He needn’t have worried as their opponents El Salvador simply imploded in a red mist.
With multiple qualification scenarios available to all four teams in Group B, this encounter was not going to be for the faint-hearted, and Marsch’s book of plans would be tested from A to Z as his opposite number, Hernán Darío Gómez, had obviously ramped up the aggression in a must-win match.
Now there’s aggression and then there’s thuggery, coupled with stupidity. La Selecta indulged in the latter, and within 45 minutes they were down to nine players. In the 39th minute, Santos Ortiz received his second yellow card for a reckless foul, soon to be followed by Jairo Henríquez using his elbow like some form of tomahawk. This marked the first time in tournament history that a team had lost two players to red cards in the first half of a game.
Between those ejections, Jonathan David had contrived to have a penalty brilliantly saved by Mario González, and with Honduras beating Curaçao at PayPal Park, Canada found themselves in second place in the group.
As the second half began, Marsch looked relaxed – and who wouldn’t with a two-man advantage? All that was required was patience, and within eight minutes that was rewarded when Jonathan David scored his first goal of the tournament after a sublime reverse pass from Mathieu Choinière that had the entire stadium looking the wrong way, such was the disguise.
One became two just three minutes later when Tajon Buchanan gratefully received Niko Sigur’s simple pass to roof it past González. Marsch immediately went to plan ‘S’ and substituted his star players – David, Derek Cornelius and Alistair Johnston for Joel Waterman, Daniel Jebbison and Ismaël Koné respectively.
The rest of the half played out with Canada going through the motions while El Salvador flirted with finishing with eight players but remained disciplined enough to keep nine on the pitch. They will go home and concentrate on World Cup qualifying.
What to Make of Canada?
They smashed an undercooked Honduras side who incredibly qualified for the knockout rounds despite the 6-0 annihilation. They coughed up a late equalizer to Curaçao and now they have dispatched a nine-man El Salvador.
Marsch is seemingly intent on creating a siege mentality, and sometimes that works – but in this case, it only works if Canada wins the tournament. Next up they’ll play Guatemala, and should they win, you couldn’t script it any better.
Jesse could then come up against the country he wanted to coach and got rebuffed for in favour of Gregg Berhalter (should the U.S. beat Costa Rica… no given) – simply delicious, and the headlines write themselves.
This Concacaf Gold Cup is a tournament that refuses to be outshone by other competitions and while it might not have the glamour countries or clubs, the drama is right up there with the best in the world.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1750846538labto1750846538ofdlr1750846538owedi1750846538sni@o1750846538fni1750846538