The Sunday showdown everyone wanted will happen, just not the way most expected.
A desperate Canadian search for a men’s international trophy will stretch on to the summer after Raúl Jiménez clinically guided Mexico to a 2-0 win and a spot in the Concacaf Nations League Final against unlikely opponent Panama, who dispatched the US earlier on Thursday night.
Amid Donald Trump’s “51st state” threats and tariffs, Mexico’s fellow 2026 World Cup hosts will now serve as curtain raisers back here on Sunday when a new name goes on the trophy for the first time after the US won each of its first three editions.
An instant opener and set-piece dagger did for the Canadians, who’d arrived laser-focused on winning it all but who lost concentration and temper. A bizarre VAR decision denying a penalty rubbed extra salt into the wound. Here in a city that specializes in delays, healing will have to happen quickly.
“They really wanted to lift the trophy for the country,” Marsch said afterwards. “It was a knife in the heart to play well but then just short fall short. That disappointment is hard to shake.”
The Canadian team bus had snaked its way through South LA’s Thursday rush hour traffic and was pulling into the lower reaches of SoFi Stadium just as Cecilio Waterman arrowed a stunning injury-time winner past Matt Turner to turn this entire week on its head.
There was a joke to be found about a Panamanian called Waterman doing it for the canal. You’d hope someone in the bank of Canadian fans Concacaf had seated right next door to the US supporters group had found it. Either way, Panama being the team waiting for a Sunday night dance partner was surely not what the majority had been expecting.
Expectations can be fragile things, of course. Marsch has spent his 10 months at the helm first confounding them then passionately demanding they are raised again and again, with last summer’s Copa América odyssey giving him instant evidence to point to. The squad he gathered here in LA, a group he described as the most talented in the country’s history, had bought in, all echoing their coach’s insistence that they were here for hardware. They’ll leave without it, but a showdown with the Americans offers more than mere consolation.
Javier Aguirre has solved some of Mexico’s pressing issues since returning for a third stint after last summer’s dispiriting Copa América. A sturdy but unspectacular 0-0 draw with Canada last September had been one brick in the rebuild. Here instead of deciding between two in-form frontmen in Jiménez and Santiago Giménez, he went for both, the latter coming in off the left.
Within just 45 seconds it paid off. Two sets of players had lined up but just one appeared to hear referee Saíd Martínez’s whistle. Johan Vásquez plucked a ball out of the air and sent it bobbling towards Jiménez who flicked it into his almost-namesake’s path. From there it bobbled again, Alphonso Davies deflected it on to Moïse Bombito and into Jiménez’s path. The Fulham striker made no mistake.
They’d only be somewhat successful in doing so as the first half became a breakneck, chaotic megamix of Concacaf classics. Five yellow cards flashed, Martínez threatened to lose control, and then an inexplicable VAR penalty decision.
How Canada weren’t awarded a spot-kick on nine minutes was a mystery. Captain Edson Álvarez swung a boot at a ball which Derek Cornelius got to first. SoFi’s giant infinity screens signalled that VAR was checking just as Martinez signalled a restart. On the sideline, Marsch looked in vain for answers.
“What I think is inexcusable … is that it’s not at least looked at by the head referee, right?” he said later. “First it’s called a foul in the other direction which is strange, because we clearly get contact first. For me, this is the definition of a penalty.”
While his players did find their feet, they never found control. In the space of 15 minutes midway through the half, Bombito, Alistair Johnston and Davies were all booked, with goalkeeper Dayne St Clair producing a great save from Giménez amid it all.
Marsch is crystal clear in his demands for his team to be relentlessly aggressive but when the circumstances and an erratic official require a toning down, can it be done? In the 35th minute, Johnston tried to hoof a free-kick off the nearby Alexis Vega to get him booked. He missed and instead gifted possession back to Mexico, a moment that summed up plenty.
Relief came, ironically from VAR, when Álvarez’s close-range header was ruled out five minutes before the break. Canada struggled mightily to create openings, the night finishing with just one shot on target. “We need to slow the game down [in attack],” he suggested. “We should have been able to create more given the way we were approaching the game.”
Marsch had sprinted to the dressing rooms early at the interval and when his side continued to struggle for openings, he didn’t wait long to make changes. Wingers Jacob Shaffelburg and Tajon Buchanan asked to bring width, perhaps because in the middle Erik Lira was spoiling to terrific effect.
There would be no spoiling the night’s most alluring moment. With 15 minutes left, Jiménez stepped up to a set-piece that was 30-plus yards out and whipped a simply delicious effort that curled inside St Clair’s near post. Mexicans rained expensive cerveza down from above on the striker. A small price to pay. For Canada, tariffs and Trump will come back into the chatter. But the trophy talk is once more parked.
