INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Six weeks before the last four teams standing in the Concacaf Nations League gathered in the Los Angeles area, the U.S.’ new geopolitical realities positioned themselves as a massive cloud that would linger over the North American soccer championship. The list of events that signaled as much grew quickly, from comedian Jon Stewart’s Concacaf quip during an early February episode of “The Daily Show” to the heated 4 Nations Challenge between the U.S. and Canada’s hockey teams weeks later. Jesse Marsch, the American coach of Canada’s men’s soccer team, ensured the topic would enter his sport’s domain with a stern rebuke of U.S. President Donald Trump’s ’51st state’ rhetoric in the midst of a tariff war, just days after Canada’s hockey team notched a big win over their neighbors to the south.
By the time each of the head coaches of the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Panama made their way to SoFi Stadium on Tuesday for pre-match remarks ahead of Thursday’s semifinals, each of them, though, said soccer is all they have talked about with their players – and all they want to focus on this week.
To some degree, the question was perhaps most pressing for Panama head coach Thomas Christiansen, whose side is guaranteed to face the U.S. men’s national team on Thursday in the first semifinal. This matchup comes in the midst of tensions between the two nations over the Panama Canal, which Trump claimed the U.S. “reclaimed” in his address to a joint session of Congress earlier this month, something Panama president Jose Raul Mulino called a lie. Christiansen, who is from Denmark, steered clear of any commentary on that front on Tuesday.
“It’s not a plan of motivation. Speaking or talking about politics, it’s not my area,” Christiansen said. “I prefer to leave it behind … It’s not my business. If you want to talk about football systems or tactics, I’m glad to talk about that but politics, it’s not my thing.”
While Christiansen kept his comments brief, his counterparts were unable to do so, succumbing to the inherent awkwardness of addressing the elephant in the room. Though Marsch stood by his comments from a month ago, he chose not to be a firebrand on Tuesday and instead took an unexpectedly optimistic approach.
“I’m hopeful that this tournament can be the best reflection of our societies, and that we don’t have to waste time booing national anthems and getting caught up in politics,” Marsch said, “and we can just focus on the players and the teams and supporting the love of the game, the love of the sport and whatever your nationality is, that you [are able to] support your team all the way.”
Mauricio Pochettino, the USMNT’s Argentine head coach, echoed Marsch’s genial demeanor both in his public remarks as well as in a private interaction the pair shared earlier.
“I found, in the pitch, Jesse Marsch, and we were talking in a very good way,” he said. “We are so friendly because we know [each other] from Europe.”
Marsch and Pochettino agreed that the current state of affairs in North America should not influence their pre-match preparations and that players and staff alike reserve the right to keep their opinions to themselves. Marsch admitted that his players are “very aware” but that he does not blame them for not wanting to be “political figures,” while Pochettino said he has a certain set of values but said he is not qualified to delve into geopolitical nuances, giving an answer that lasted longer than three minutes despite taking a similar stance as the concise Christiansen.
He did take a more pointed stance on the topic than his counterparts, though, arguing that “people are not waiting for us to talk in this way.” The USMNT coach was particularly stern about not mixing pre-match preparation and politics, alluding to how the Falklands War of 1982 between the U.K. and Argentina has not impacted his ability to work and reside in London.
“I think we cannot mix political things with sport,” Pochettino said. “I think motivation cannot be from different political problems, diplomatic problems, that we cannot be involved in. Players cannot be involved in there, cannot think in there … You know very well that I came from Argentina and all that happened in between Argentina and in the country now that is my home, that is the U.K. To mix all these situations never was my way. That is why, please, we need to enjoy, because soccer and football is about having fun, for the fans to enjoy, happiness.”
Marsch, like his counterparts, has focused on other nationalistic exercises that feel uncontroversial in international sports. He admitted he wants his team to embrace the “Canadian hockey mentality” and texted with Jon Cooper, the head coach of Canada’s hockey team, during the 4 Nations Challenge. Whether or not the Concacaf Nations League’s final four teams want to talk about it, though, it is hard to ignore the circumstances.
“The climate for sports in North America has been elevated for national teams,” Marsch said. “We know that there’s a charged atmosphere around what these international games mean now.”
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