Marsch bullish before Qatar match as Canada prepare to welcome back Alphonso Davies

Alphonso Davies is set to make his 2026 World Cup debut. Photograph: Elizabeth Ruiz Ruiz/Getty Images Asked how he’s handling the scrutiny of coaching a World Cup co-host – where even apparently insignificant comments can end up in the headlines – Jesse Marsch was quick to flash a grin. “Maybe we’ll get through this one without creating news cycles,” Marsch quipped a day before his Canada team welcome Qatar to Vancouver for a pivotal Group B clash. The teams are level on one point each after the first round of games, leaving the group wide open. Marsch and midfielder Ismaël Koné refused to look beyond Thursday’s match though. Koné pushed back against one reporter’s insinuation that the players are more anonymous in Vancouver than in Toronto, the site of their draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina last week. But training in British Columbia since Monday has allowed Marsch and his men to ease the pressure of being co-hosts. “The bigger the event, there’s going to be more distractions,” Marsch said, “so we’ve tried to minimize that. But at the same time, it’s really difficult to prepare for everything, the madness that surrounds … a World Cup.” Perhaps one injury update has allowed Marsch to breathe a little easier. Alphonso Davies has trained this week and is available to make his debut at this World Cup, at the stadium where he started his club career. Davies, a regular starter at Bayern Munich when healthy, is Canada’s best player. He is also the face of the program, cropping up (along with Jonathan David) whenever Canadian broadcasts hit a commercial break. On the field, Davies will help Canada’s build-up play. He offers an outlet out wide, freeing up space for Koné and Stephen Eustáquio to pull the strings in the middle of the park. While that points to a more proactive approach than Canada managed against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Koné emphasized that the result matters far more than the style – especially for a nation still searching for its first men’s World Cup win. “I think there will be a lot of people who are proud and who will support us,” Koné said. “So we’ll want to make a good game, but first of all, it’s to earn three points. We’re in a tournament, every point is important. So we’re going to go get them. If it goes well, we can try to have fun, but most importantly, for 90 minutes, we will try to make sure we get out of this match with victory.” While they have never faced Canada, Qatar have become familiar to Concacaf nations after participating in the 2021 and 2023 installments of the Gold Cup. That means they’ll be used to the travel across North America – they played their World Cup opener in the San Francisco Bay Area – and won’t be afraid of the physical style that’s often synonymous with Concacaf soccer. Marsch offered plenty of respect to Qatar. Perhaps he was mindful of the media storm he set off last week when he remarked on US players’ attitudes to their national anthem. “Look, whether it’s been coaching in the Premier League, the Champions League, the different countries I’ve worked in, the one thing you get with me is I kind of just answer questions with what I think,” Marsch admitted. “That’s not normal. I understand that in this business, a lot of people watch their words a lot more carefully. I choose to think about the teams that I coach and the players that I work with, and try to represent everything that we want to be at all times.” In general, Marsch said the atmosphere at camp in Vancouver has been “calmer” than the build-up to Canada’s opener. With a historic first point secured, all focus is now on the team reaching the knockout round for the first time at a men’s World Cup. With Davies back and others like Koné and David proven game-changers at this level, all that’s left is the work on the field – with an assist from tens of thousands of supporters. “I know this is a football town, Vancouver,” Marsch said. “We’ve seen it many times before, and we expect this place to be rocking, man. I mean, red everywhere, rocking, supporting these guys, supporting their players, their team, their country. These guys will be ready to perform, and we want to make sure that Qatar feels not just the team but the crowd. So show up, be loud, use the echo in the stadium, and make sure that we have a 12th man.”