For more than a decade now, Jesse Marsch has been considered the most talented and promising American coach of his generation. For a country aspiring to compete amongst the heavyweights of the game, the 52-year-old’s career has been tracked as any rising star player’s might, and expectations have been high for him to help raise the profile of US Soccer.
Instead, it’s Canada whose profile he has raised, putting the outsiders on the map. Instead, it’s Canada that Marsch will coach at the 2026 World
Cup after his career took a turn nobody expected.
In 2023, the Wisconsin-born manager believed he would replace Gregg Berhalter as head coach of the United States Men’s National Team. He got the news he was next in line while in England seeking the head coaching job at Leicester City. He passed on it as a result. Then, US Soccer rescinded their offer and re-hired Berhalter.
“It was made very clear to me by US Soccer that I was going to be the coach, and then it was made very clear to me that I was not,” Marsch said of having the rug pulled out from under him. “I was devastated and angry—but now I’m thankful and really happy to be where I’m at.”
Marsch took the Canada job the next year, just before Berhalter was replaced by Mauricio Pochettino. With Canada looking better than ever and winning their last two against the USMNT, for many Marsch has gone from next great hope to the one that got away. He might also still hold a grudge, having since called out the USMNT for having a lack of discipline and criticizing US Soccer for having “so many egos and opinions” for a coach to navigate.
The Red Bull school of gegenpressing
Taking over New York Red Bulls in 2015, Marsch made an instant impression on the network’s hierarchy, who brought him to Europe to spend a year as Red Bull soccer guru Ralf Rangnick’s assistant with RB Leipzig in the German Bundesliga. Soon, Marsch was sent to the network’s Austrian club before returning to Leipzig as head coach.
When he took the Canada job in 2024, though, he was coming off a year at Leeds United that had taken some shine off. There, he took over from current Uruguay manager Marcelo Beilsa, a man alternately dubbed The Professor and The Madman and the pioneer of modern high-press soccer.
Marsch wasn’t in Bielsa’s coaching tree, but he believed in gegenpressing—the German take on high-press—and seemed an ideal fit. Despite that, results were mixed and fans never fully took to him.
Beloved by Rangnick and famously deployed at Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool by Jürgen Klopp, at its core to gegenpress is to defend from the front. Rather than dropping off to set a defensive block, a gegenpress seeks to exert maximum pressure after losing possession to force an immediate turnover and spring the counter-attack.
The focus on physicality and quick transitions makes a demanding system, can lead to tired players and injuries, and opens gaps for talented opponents to exploit. It’s also undeniably fun for neutrals and has helped a talented generation including Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies and Juventus’ Jonathan David shine for Canada.
Marsch, Canada, and the weight of expectation
For all the buzz over the past decade, Marsch and Canada haven’t yet reached the heights they would have hoped or, in Marsch’s case, expected to. Having been America’s next great coaching hope, things seemed to rather go off the rails for Marsch around Leeds and missing out on the USMNT job.
As for Canada, the World Cup in Qatar was just their second appearance, and hopes were high that they could improve on a terrible showing in 1986 where they lost all three group stage games and didn’t score a goal. In 2022 they lost all three group stage games but did at least score twice.
At the 2024 Copa America, their first tournament under Marsch, they managed a surprise fourth-place finish but still struggled against top opposition. Still, fourth is something nobody would have dreamed of before Marsch signed on. And there is the part where Canada has now beaten the USMNT twice with him in charge.
Those wins included a 2-1 triumph in the 2025 Nations League third-place game that served to highlight both Canada’s unexpected ascension and the USMNT’s continuing struggles. Despite those recent minor successes, though, never managing a point at the World Cup continues to define Canada to the rest of the soccer world.
Here in 2026, an expanded tournament means Canada should not only get their first point in their third World Cup, but that they’re fully expected to make it out of the group stage. After a decade of hope and expectation, this is a chance to prove it—for Jesse Marsch and for Canada.
