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Hello! A red card for Marsch, red flags for Pochettino, and a red face for Donnarumma.
On the way:
🟥 Raging Marsch sent off
🙏 Poch pleads for patience
📐 Germany’s ingenious corner
🚫 First Club World Cup victim
There’s a parallel universe in which Jesse Marsch is coaching the USMNT. The opportunity presented itself in 2023 when the job’s then incumbent Gregg Berhalter was on the ropes post-World Cup and Marsch was out of work.
The chance came and went, and to go by Marsch’s own comments, it won’t come again. He is Canada’s man now and is becoming a thorn in the side of the Americans. He took on U.S. President Donald Trump and, last night, turned over the USMNT for good measure.
The 51-year-old has what could be respectfully described as main-character syndrome — the knack of putting himself front and centre. Beating Mauricio Pochettino in the third-place match at the Concacaf Nations League Finals made headlines in itself but only after Marsch was sent off for slating the referee early in the second half.
Marsch raged over two penalty calls Canada didn’t get, not that they stood in the way of a 2-1 win. His ire towards Katia Itzel García wasn’t a good look, not least because one of her decisions correctly spotted a Jonathan David slip. Regardless, USMNT could do with showing some of the fire in Marsch and Canada.
For Pochettino, it’s two meaningful games played, two meaningful games lost, and a squad left looking rather wet. The last thing he would have wanted a few months into his tenure was to be pleading with the U.S. public for patience, as if they haven’t been asked for it before.
“We are going to find a way to perform,” Pochettino said, but at this juncture, it’s merely a soundbite. We’re seeing no progression and no tangible identity. There’s that suspicion at the back of your head that this USMNT crop just don’t have it — and that holding out for a stellar World Cup performance on home turf next year is like holding out for Crystal Palace to win the Premier League. Time will tell.
Mexico win title after handball drama
Whether Marsch’s complaints were valid or not, we’d all have been on the pitch a few hours later had Mexico’s winning penalty against Panama in the Nations League final not been given.
Bear in mind, the aberration (above) came in the last 60 seconds of normal time, with the score tied at 1-1. We all make mistakes but Panama defender Jose Cordoba deserves an afternoon in the stocks for his. Perhaps he had a plane to catch.
Mexico’s Raul Jimenez has owned it in Los Angeles, with two goals in the semi-final and two more last night. He wasn’t going to pass up Cordoba’s charity. And while I don’t know if any of this makes Mexico dark horses for 2026, they have the vibes of a team who the big hitters would prefer to swerve.
News round-up
Euro Madness: Cheeky corner goal, Ronaldo Show rumbles on
The humble international friendly has the jeopardy of a tea party and a little while ago, UEFA put it out to grass.
The governing body’s rationale for starting the European Nations League (ditching those zombie contests in the process) was twofold: create backdoor routes for minor nations into World Cups and European Championships, and give top-tier countries an incentive to shake a leg.
Six and a half years on, it appears to be working. Last night’s quarter-final second legs were a riot: 21 goals across four matches, three games taken to extra time and two settled by penalty shootouts. The upshot was a last-four line-up of Spain vs France and Portugal vs Germany, coming up in June and a plethora of talking points.
The best of them was the opportunism of Germany and Jamal Musiala. He kept his eyes open after Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma tipped a Tim Kleindienst header over the bar and then went wandering out to bark orders at his defence.
With Donnarumma AWOL, Musiala unapologetically slipped a quickly taken corner into an empty net (above). Some might class his finish as below the belt. Our Stuart James is on the side of clever ingenuity, and so am I.
On the subject of main-character syndrome, Cristiano Ronaldo was doing what he does best by commandeering attention during Portugal’s victory over Denmark.
He crossed swords with journalists beforehand, tepidly failed to score a penalty early on (above) but then got his goal and led the charge to a 5-3 win after extra time. Each passing match staves off the 40-year-old’s international retirement but as Tim Spiers writes, it can’t be healthy for Portugal to be wholly wrapped up in the Ronaldo show.
Spain are different: a broad cast of personalities, with a new face in town — Bournemouth defender Dean Huijsen. Born in the Netherlands, he switched allegiance in 2024 and got his senior Spanish debut last week. Just 19, he assisted a Lamine Yamal goal against the country of his birth yesterday, on the way to Spain edging out the Dutch on penalties. Keep an eye on Huijsen because he’s pretty special.
Club Leon’s late exit: Mexican side cut from Club World Cup after multi-club rule breach
FIFA’s newfangled Club World Cup (CWC) has its first victim, even though the tournament is a month and a half away from starting. Club Leon, one of the 32 participants, are out.
It’s a political matter, inevitably. The Mexican side are majority owned by Grupo Pachuca. So are fellow Liga MX and CWC contenders Pachuca. FIFA’s rules on multi-club ownership prevent a single owner from exerting control over two teams in the same competition, so Leon have gone. We wait now to see who will replace them.
A penny for the thoughts of James Rodriguez, who joined Leon in January and must have hoped the Club World Cup would showcase him in the absence of any major European sides moving to take a gamble on him. And kudos to FIFA for overseeing another debacle in which a club who qualified via its own mechanism has been expelled at late notice. The organisation’s comedy value is unrivalled
Around TAFC
- I did a double-take reading about Norway’s historical international record: three World Cup appearances, one at the Euros and none at either since 2000. Surely, Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard can change that?
- This piece about the minutes amassed by Premier League players (above) tells a story about just how much responsibility Haaland has been carrying. He has played more than anybody else at Manchester City and is one of the division’s most active stars. Some rotation wouldn’t hurt.
- The fanfare around a world-class stadium for Manchester United is all well and good but Matt Slater wanted to establish how they will meet the estimated £2bn cost. It’s the project’s elephant in the room.
- Quiz answer: the last five clubs to win England’s League Cup for the first time are Newcastle United (2025), Swansea City (2013), Middlesbrough (2004), Blackburn Rovers (2002) and Manchester United (1992).
- Most clicked in Friday’s TAFC: Panama swarming Thierry Henry.
Catch a match
(Selected games, kick-offs ET/UK time)
World Cup qualifying, UEFA: England vs Latvia, 3.45pm/7.45pm — Fubo, ViX/ITV
World Cup qualifying, CAF: Ivory Coast vs Gambia, 3pm/7pm — ESPN+/FIFA+
And finally…
Ricardo Quaresma — of Barcelona, Porto, Inter and Chelsea fame — is one of those tricksters who, as the kids would say, the streets won’t forget. His speciality was the trivela: that killer strike with the outside of the boot.
For old time’s sake, he dusted it off beautifully during an indoor tournament in Brazil, top-cornering the net like his flamboyant zenith was just yesterday. Quaresma is 41 and for those of us of a similar vintage, it’s nice to see people fighting off Father Time.
(Top photo: Frederic J Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
