OverDrive - Scianitti on Marsch under the microscope, the incidents at the Gold Cup and Canada Soccer's progression

Episode Date: June 20, 2025

TSN Soccer Reporter Matthew Scianitti joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around CONCACAF's investigation in Jesse Marsch for his incidents at the Gold Cup, his ferocious character on the sideline, Canada Soccer's team foundation, the relationship with Alphonso Davies, the future of the organization and more.

Let go from your job without a severance package? You need EmploymentLawyer.ca. Your employer is legally required to give you as much as 24 months pay when you lose your job. Call Leor Samferu and get what you're owed. EmploymentLawyer.ca. Squinting through bright days? That's a no.

Struggling with glare? Also no. What about sunglasses over regular glasses? Big no. But prescription sunglasses from Pearl Vision? That's a huge yes. They're a must have for enjoying the sun in style. Choose from designer frames like Ralph Lauren, Coach Michael Kors, and more. Arrange an eye exam at pearlvision.ca and get 40% off lenses. Some restrictions and exclusions may apply see participating stores for details here's our tsn soccer

reporter matthew shen nanny what is the latest here with jesse marsh and and what could be happening with him in the future well we're going to find out i think in the next well probably by this weekend the second of his to match been which he got for being kicked off the sidelines in the Cockicap Nations League back in March. He will finish that up after they face Curacao. But this whole situation that unfolded earlier this week on Tuesday in their first game of the gold cup against Honduras was certainly interesting because sources have told me that this investigation that's now been started yet again by CONCACAF has a lot to do with

apparently where Marsh was sitting, a place he shouldn't have been sitting, he was taken there by a CONCACAF official and then his reactions to that official when he was told that he had to move. Now this could potentially be problematic because in the release when CONCACAF handed down the two-match ban the final paragraph stipulates that in the event Marsh is they say sanctioned or punished again they would account for the two-match ban and kind of see it as well you know this is a repeat offense and they wouldn't go lightly on them. So Marsh was in front of the media today, here in Houston. I was there, and I asked him the first question about what happened, what's going on, could take us through what happened at BC Place,

and he was very quick to deescalate. And I think that is not only, well, I would say it's coming probably, first, from Canada Soccer, and secondly, I think it's coming from Marsh, because we don't want to get to a point, and if Noodles is using the analogy of Gordon Ramsay, we don't want, I don't think Jesse Marsh wants

to become a caricature of himself. And with as well as this team is playing, any further outbursts will start to draw attention away from the development that's clearly been happening over the last year with the Canadian Men's National team and we'll focus more on Marsh and it might start to be Dean like Antics. So from what you know of him, does he run hot? Like does he have a reputation?

What kind of outburst are we talking here? Here's the deal boys. This is if you've ever, all you need to do is Google Jesse Marsh and David Beckham, in which when Jesse Marsh was playing for Chivas USA many years ago, and David Beckham was playing for the LA Galaxy, Jesse Marsh two-footed David Beckham and really didn't care.

That is who Jesse Marsh is to his core. He is super approachable. Everyone at the grassroots level of Canadian soccer, who he has met, live spoken to, talk about how open he is and loves the game, loves talking about the game, loves teaching the game. But when we get close to match time, a different guy comes out.

Now, he was on the Men in Blazers podcast early this week, and their host Roger Bennett, and he was, and I've heard this before, he's talked about being cool dad and psycho dad. And he chuckles when he says that the level of intensity that he gets when he gets to be that psycho dad and then I have seen it because I've been around him literally more than probably anybody else over the last year and there is that intensity when he gets close to matches but if you follow the timeline

here of his interactions with CONCAC, you could see from the Nations League to his comments after the Vancouver Whitecaps played the Concap Champions Cup and they lost. He insinuated that there might have been some kind of poisoning that happened. He doesn't hold back when he wants to speak his mind. But the thing is this, Canada's a favorite to win this tournament.

And irrespective of, and a lot of fans on social media have a lot of opinions about CONCACAF, which is the governing body of North, Central, and the Caribbean. And they are very adamant that, you know, there's always, they look sideways at the idea that perhaps CONCACAF is in it against Canada. That is irrelevant. The Canadian men's team is very good, they're deep. I remember last year when we were talking before their second game in Kansas City against Peru about scoring goals.

Well, they're scoring a boatload of goals now. They've got talented players. And knowing just as marsh as I do, I totally think that at this point, and he's also said this openly, he said it today, he doesn't want to make it about himself, but that's really gonna come down to him because he still is that player inside.

He still has that passion, that intensity, that drive, but he's gotta learn to keep a cap on it because we're now less than a year out from the World Cup and I know this for certain, wouldn't want to be a distraction and the more Cup and he, I know this for certain, wouldn't want to be a distraction. And the more questions and legitimate questions that we have to ask about this, the more it stays, the focus stays on him.

But I also know too that that intensity rubs off on his players. And I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow, given everything that's happened, irrespective of how hot it is in Houston, how hot it's gonna be late in the afternoon tomorrow for them, I suspect just as they did again ponderous and that you know the six goals they scored

they will be out of the office of tomorrow against uh... against curacao yes it's tough to say i don't want the attention on you know myself meanwhile you're suspended and possibly facing another one during your suspension you know i I mean it's, I don't know, I've really appreciated Marsh's approach and how he's kind of stood up for Canada.

I think he said a lot of things that a lot of Canadian soccer fans have really, really appreciated. He's an easy guy to like, the team's playing well. You know, a gold cup is, it's important, it's a tune up. But like you mentioned, you know, you were less than a year away from the real stuff and i'm curious what you saw out of honduras with a lineup that was not complete you

know obviously that the national team deal with injuries and other things what you might expect tomorrow that would suggest you know this this program uh... is on the right path and once we get to the world cup next year it will be time to actually win a game or two uh... in the group stage yeah i mean the fact is that there are three things that jesse marsh wanted to do the gold cup won and the attitude is part of it he hasn't been open about this

that he doesn't want his players to be timid and now he might have overreached in terms of you know trying to be an example example of those emotions and I don't think anyone, especially those who are around him quite a bit, would doubt that. And I think maybe in a private moment he would probably acknowledge too, okay, you know what, and he kind of did today actually in front of the media saying, okay, you know what, you know, focus more on the players. But obviously it's hard when there's an ongoing investigation into, you know, alleged

actions that he may or may not have happened in that first game. But when you watch that game against Honduras, not only was the attitude there to be aggressive, to take charge, to keep the foot on the pedal, the goals were there. And to add that, the third point, the depth was there. And Canada wants to win this tournament. Canada, if they don't get to the final, and I don't, you know, clip me, the third point, the depth was there. And Canada wants to win this tournament.

Canada, if they don't get to the final, and I don't, you know, clip me, whatever you want, if they don't get to the final, it'll be a disappointment. Not a step back necessarily, but it will be a disappointment, because boys, the fact is this, Jesse Marsh, before he came to Canada,

he was very close to signing with South Korea and being their national team head coach. And the reason that was is because Jesse Marsh is very, very invigorated by the idea of the 2002 World Cup and what he saw happen in South Korea when they went to the semi-finals. And he sees the same potential here in Canada. Now I'm not gonna go into limits

at Canada's getting to the semi-finals of next year's World Cup. They do have to win. They have to score goals. They have to actually get results. They have to win and they have to get it with a group. But you can start to see those things building right now. They're going to win tomorrow against Curacao.

If they don't, it would be a massive shock. And they're going to score goals tomorrow. Then they're gonna face El Salvador. And those who are keen-eyed Canadian soccer fans will remember a time when Honduras and El Salvador were the big banana peel. It wasn't necessarily the Americans or the Mexicans. It was how Canada would deal with El Salvador, how Canada would deal with Honduras. When you watch that game against Honduras, save for maybe two moments when Honduras had

half chances on Canada's net and Dane Sinclair made a couple of saves, Canada was all over Honduras. When you look at the couple of free kick opportunities they had it should have been seven eight or nine goals that they scored. So you know it is quite hot here do I expect they're going to score that many goals tomorrow against Curacao and then in a couple days time against El Salvador? Not necessarily because it's going to be late in the afternoon and there's a lot of heat and it's going to be a long tournament. But Canada it really is focused on, and I've used this example already today,

I was talking to somebody about this. If you want to know how much these players care, look at Jonathan David. Jonathan David doesn't have a club right now. Jonathan David is not signed anywhere. He is one of the best strikers around his age, at 25, in Europe. And he now is looking for his next big move.

Really, in any other sport, he'd be in Saran Wrap saying, you know what, I love playing for my country and there's the World Cup next year, but I gotta focus on making sure that I seal my club future, because that's where he's gonna make his money. Not only is Jonathan David here, Jonathan David's gonna wear the captain's armband tomorrow.

And that is an indication, irrespective of all of the attention on Marsha's emotions, that should show you how much these players have bought in. They believe that they can win the gold cup and they believe they can go ahead in a year's time and go on a long run in the world cup because Jesse Marsh has stood in front of them and said, I believe in you and then stood in front of the media and said, I'm going to go ahead and go ahead and wear my heart on my sleeve for these guys. With Matthew Shinetti and it's my understanding Alphonso Davies was around the team when they were in Vancouver?

Yeah, yes he was. He was and he still recovered from his ACL injury. Right and where do things stand with him and Marsh and the program? Considering how it blew up a few months ago. There have been a lot of bridges that have been, not rebuilt, but there's, that whole situation again was another example of just how much buy-in there was between Alfonso Davies and Jesse Marsh and the program.

What happened there was very unfortunate, and I'm not gonna co-relate anything, but there have been some significant injuries that have happened under Jesse Marsh's time. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean anything about his training, it doesn't necessarily mean it. There are no factors that you relate to Jesse Marsh's coaching style,

but they have had to go ahead and deal with the loss of Tejani Buchanan last year, the loss of Alfonso Davies, and now they've lost Sam Matakuwe to a blown Achilles. And when I see that Alfonso Davies goes out of his way to come to see his team, stand outside the locker room, which I was there, and make sure that he's interacting with his teammates, not only because he's a captain,

that shows me that his relationship with Jesse Marsh is fine, his relationship with Canada Soccer is fine. Because in other situations and you know those who follow European soccer and international soccer who listen to the show will doubtlessly know this there are situations in international football where that doesn't happen where there is so much tension between a head coach and a player or a player and his international association national association that those things just don't play out but you don't have

the captain who's recovering from a major injury, who's trying to focus on getting back with his club team, again, where he makes all his money, that would take the time to go meet with his team, be out there, be visible, wanting to go ahead and interact. And that shows me, one, that Alfonso Davies takes being the captain of the Canadian international team seriously, and two, that overall the relationship is fine.

But as we go forward here, how Marsh starts to manage all these personalities is gonna be key because there's competition for places. He has said it constantly. He said it to the team, one of the first meetings he had with them when they met in Rotterdam last spring. It's 26 for 26, but only 11 guys can get on the field. And other

players, the younger players who are coming in, like Jayden Nelson who plays for the Vancouver Whitecaps, who's very eager to be a part of this team over the next year, I said, it's going to be like the Hunger Games. So yeah, everyone is bought in, but those personnel, those tensions, the desire to fight for your place, you know, the competition between guys, that's something else Marsh is gonna have to manage because yeah, it feels good right now when they're in a tournament that they absolutely should be considered favorites to win

and there's good feelings around the group and these guys genuinely like each other, but the closer we get to the World Cup, I think it's gonna be a bigger test for Marsh inside the room to manage those expectations, to manage those personalities because there is depth on this team but there are only so many spots.

There's only 11 guys that can start on that first game at BMO field on June 12th of next year and Marsha's going to have to manage everybody's expectations because he said it time and time again, I'm only going to field the best guys. Shinetti, did you get my part C Luke Wilson some Chuck Taylors for the sidelines or are you coaching that guy up or what? You know what, oh dog, I was looking at his shoes and beautiful, like immaculate, immaculate shoes and I said to him, you know what man, I'm sure I can hook you up. You know the suit's nice but we gotta have a little more character but he loves that

stash oh dog and the way that he... I don't know, what do you think of the stash?'s kind of it's just i don't know things that you look how to make though it looks like this it's not going to be but that's the thing and then he's got the little you know it's got the loop you know kind of mullet go in and i think that's a scary look at the book think about him though is he on the like that's the thing you got i'd i'd said this to people if you've got a thing you got a lean into why, you know, at a time I had probably more chucks

than I'm willing to admit, and he likes to walk around with a nice thick stash with, you know, business in the front, party in the back. But you know, we're happy to have Wilson on the CFL and TSM because you know what it brings is it brings an energy and a knowledge to the game and frankly an attitude and opinion that is refreshing to the Canadian Football League and You know you guys have seen on social media

Sometimes he's gonna go ahead and shoot from the hip But you know what he it's coming from the right place and this guy knows what he's talking about and I can tell you When we were there in Montreal a couple Fridays ago the players were happy to see him because There is that mutual respect when a guy and this is very true of not only NFL But definitely the CFL if you're gonna come hot with with takes you show up and you go ahead and you dab guys up And you're there then the guys will respect you and I can see immediately how everyone Eminently respected Luke and it's good to have him part

of the CFL on TSN too. He's at it tonight down at BMO. Alright Matt, enjoy it buddy, down there in Houston and we'll do it again soon. Thank you for this. Take care boys. There he is, Matthew Shinetti, our TSN soccer reporter and insider live with the Canadian National team ahead of another gold cup match. The biggest songs in the world. national team ahead of another gold cup match. you love. New interviews and newly unearthed archive footage make for a fascinating weekly deep dive. Stream Encore, the stories behind the songs you

love on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.