Jesse Marsch, like a lot of 52-year-old men, knows that he has likely lived more life than he has left to live, and he’s trying hard to finish stronger than he started.
One of his defining features as a player was his temper. It wasn’t vicious, exactly, but he ran hot, and he was capable of violence, especially when it felt righteous, like justice. “I wasn’t looking to make friends,” he’s said of the man he used to be. “I wanted to win.”
When David Beckham entered Major League Soccer’s frame in 2007 with the L.A. Galaxy, he faced Marsch’s Chivas USA. Marsch was excited for the test, and he wanted to show Beckham, and so the world, that he wasn’t afraid to get his boots in.
The two clashed from the opening minutes, until Beckham’s hand-checking verged, by Marsch’s lights, closer to disrespect. Marsch looked to the referee for help before deciding to settle his own accounts. He chased down Beckham from behind and kicked him, hard, in the stomach.
Beckham went down, popped up, and Marsch, a solid if unspectacular midfielder, squared up with one of the most celebrated players in the game.
Marsch apologized to Beckham the next day: He just had this switch, he explained, and sometimes it got tripped like a wire. That’s when he’d do something he’d regret, like tracking down a handsy opponent to kick him in the stomach.
He’s worked in the decades since to quell those baser impulses. He’s fought to become kinder, calmer, more cultured, more generous. In the two years he’s coached Canada’s men, he’s been warm and accessible, a man who tries to improve the mood of every room he’s in, especially if that room is a restaurant.
But like a lot of people in transition, his former self will sometimes surface like a bad memory, like a monster coming out from under the bed.
That happened during Canada’s opening World Cup match against Bosnia-Herzegovina, when Jonathan David scuffed a golden opportunity to take an early lead. Marsch’s reaction on the bench went immediately viral. He put his hands on his head before turning away and clawing at the muggy air around him, screaming invectives.
He ended the display by turning over his shoulder to glare at David like he’d stolen something from him. Calm, considered Jesse Marsch seemed suddenly possessed.
Trailing in the second half, he pulled David in the 61st minute, the earliest end to a starting shift for him in Marsch’s tenure. Cyle Larin, who was benched to start, came on to score and Canada earned its first-ever World Cup point, but the celebrations were muted by questions about David’s recent poor finishing form and the unfortunate timing of it.
At Monday’s training in Vancouver, David looked serious and grim-faced. He warmed up in a small group with Larin, Promise David, Joel Waterman, Ali Ahmed, and Tani Oluwaseyi. At one point, someone jumped theatrically high over a hurdle, and Promise David began to crack up.
Everyone else joined him except for Jonathan David.
By now, he’s no doubt seen Marsch’s reaction to his miss. (David did not speak to reporters after the Bosnia-Herzegovina game or Monday’s training.) He’s a quiet, thoughtful person, reserved to the point of stoicism. He will not have to do the same work on himself when he’s older that Marsch has had to do.
It still must have been bracing for him to see.
Marsch — the new Marsch — has always used love to motivate David. He’s made him a lock starter and a vice-captain, has given him constant praise, has called him the most intelligent player he’s ever coached.
There’s every expectation, in the cool light of reflection, that Marsch will start David against Qatar on Thursday. It would be a seismic decision to bench him, a reversion to Marsch’s former interpersonal tactics.
But David hasn’t scored in open play for the national team in nearly a year, and Marsch, clearly, still has plenty of venom in him. He wants to make friends more than he once did; he still wants to win more than anything.
Victory over Qatar on Thursday will virtually guarantee that Canada will advance to its first men’s World Cup knockout round, the newly sprawling Round of 32; after Qatar’s shock draw against Switzerland last Saturday, winning the group is also within Canada’s reach.
It’s all right there for Marsch.
Now he needs only to decide who gives him the best chance to claim it: the man he was, or the man he wants to be.
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