Jesse Marsch, the coach of Canada, said he is proud of what his team has achieved in the Copa America despite the 2-0 defeat against Argentina in the semifinals, after the North American team outperformed some of the higher-ranked teams in their first appearance in the tournament.
Marsch, the former coach of Leeds United, took charge just five weeks before the tournament began, but Canada quickly adapted to his style of play and excelled over Mexico and the United States, which failed to advance from the group stage.
Canada, which is co-hosting the 2026 World Cup with Mexico and the United States, troubled Argentina at the start of the semifinal match before Julián Álvarez and Lionel Messi found the net.
Marsch said, "What I told the team afterward is that I know they are feeling a great deal of disappointment, but I am proud of them. We have put on some amazing performances, and we need to find a way to increase the number of players available for selection for the national team. We need to continue to challenge this group of players to play more collectively and take advantage of their moments of dominance in matches, but overall, we spent five or six wonderful weeks together, and things went much better than we expected. There is still a lot of work to be done, but we have built a good foundation."
Canada's appearance in the semifinals represents its best run in a major tournament outside of the Gold Cup, and Canada will play for third place on Saturday against Uruguay or Colombia.
Marsch added, "I am doing everything in my power to develop every player in this group so that we can have a strong roster of 26 players for the 2026 World Cup. So Saturday's match will be extremely important because we are making some changes, bringing some new faces onto the field and challenging them to see if they can handle this type of match."