Soccer-Marsch aiming for Canada win over Swiss to keep home advantage

By Philip O’Connor

VANCOUVER, June 23 (Reuters) –  Canada coach Jesse Marsch is aiming to beat Switzerland in their final World Cup Group B game on Wednesday so that his side can remain in Vancouver for the round of 32.

Top ​of the table on four points, the Canadians will finish first if they ‌can avoid defeat by the Swiss, which would give them an extended break ahead of their first knockout game in Vancouver on July 2.

“Staying here in Vancouver is definitely our number one goal,” Marsch told a news conference on Tuesday.

“When I took the job, as soon as the format of ‌the tournament, ​as soon as I found that out, I said, ⁠okay, we have a clear ⁠objective, we want to win the group. Two years ago, everybody thought I was crazy, right? That prospect at the time wouldn’t be possible, but this is where I expected us to be.

“When we drew Switzerland, we thought, okay, let’s position ​ourselves to make sure that we are competing for our goal to stay in Vancouver in that last match, and so we’re here, and we’re going to be ⁠ready for it.”

CANADA WILL HAVE POSITIVE MINDSET

Though a ⁠point will be enough against the Swiss, Marsch said his team ​will take the field at BC Place aiming for victory.

“I feel like the worst way ​to get the draw is to play for a draw. I think ‌you have to go into the match and play for a win, and then in the later stages of the match you can use your substitutes and you can use tactics to now manage what you need out of the match.

“So manage the result is ⁠how I say it, so I think that we were going to start this match, going into it with the mentality and the tactics to win.”

The American coach revealed that ⁠he had asked former NBA ‌basketball star and keen soccer fan Steve Nash to send ⁠a message to the Canadian squad.

“One of the things that ​Steve spoke ‌about was the combination of tension and freedom, and the ​tension is about ⁠the discipline and the focus and the concentration to stick to the plan and to know what makes us who we are and what we are,” Marsch said.

“The freedom was to go out and play and believe in ourselves and to go after the game, and always that show (of) confidence and self-belief. I really love the message.”

(Reporting by Philip O’Connor, ​editing by Ed Osmond)