Ahead of the United States’ World Cup opening match against Paraguay on Friday, former U.S. men’s national team assistant coach and current Canada head coach Jesse Marsch shared his experience leading the USA in the 2010 World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marsch threw a dig at the U.S. team, and former players did not hesitate to respond. But let’s back up.<\/p>\n
Marsch opened up about his time leading USA under former head coach Bob Bradley, and commented about his time with the players \u2014 specifically what he thought was lacking.<\/p>\n
“In the U.S., we had to beg players to sing the national anthem,” Marsch said.<\/p>\n
Marsch\u2019s comments did not faze FOX Sports\u2019 Clint Dempsey \u2014 who played for Marsch and the American national team in the 2010 World Cup.<\/p>\n
“I can\u2019t take that guy too seriously,” Dempsey said ahead of Canada\u2019s opening match against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday. “It was an honor for me, growing up and representing my country. I wasn\u2019t someone who would normally sing. I put my hand over my heart and pray to the good man upstairs.”<\/p>\n
Dempsey remains one of the USA\u2019s most talented players across his three World Cup appearances \u2014 he was the only player to score in all three \u2014 and recorded 54 goals in 141 appearances with the United States. When it comes to playing for the U.S., Dempsey emphasized his experience representing his country.<\/p>\n
“I bled for this country. I broke my nose playing for this country. I came back from two heart procedures and played for this country,” Dempsey added. “I\u2019m not going to take advice from someone who switched to the other side and is singing for another country\u2019s national anthem.”<\/p>\n
Marsch assisted Bradley from 2010-2011 and was a part of the Americans’ 2010 World Cup staff when the squad posted a first-place finish in Group C before being eliminated by Ghana in the round of 16. Marsch was strongly considered taking over as the United States head coach in 2023, but he was ultimately sidelined when former coach Gregg Berhalter was rehired.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Additionally, FOX Sports\u2019 Thierry Henry offered his advice to Marsch ahead of his World Cup debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“You got to walk the walk and talk the talk. You can\u2019t hide behind the fact that you are a decent team,” Henry said ahead of Canada\u2019s opener. “You took a job, by the way, that someone started\u2026 That team was already there when he arrived. Yes, he elevated them. Let\u2019s see what he can do today against Bosnia [and Herzegovina].”<\/p>\n
Since Marsch arrived to Team Canada in 2024, he has accumulated a 12-12-5 record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Ahead of the United States’ World Cup opening match against Paraguay on Friday, former U.S. men’s national team assistant coach and current Canada head coach Jesse Marsch shared his experience leading the USA in the 2010 World Cup.\u00a0 Marsch threw a dig at the U.S. team, and former players did not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}