Canada coach Marsch says he has 'tough decisions' to make ahead of World Cup opener vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina

Chris Jones · CBC Sports

· Posted: Apr 01, 2026 12:31 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

Lightning flashed across the black sky, and rain began falling in blankets rather than sheets across BMO Field. For 90 minutes, Tuesday’s kickoff between Canada’s and Tunisia’s men was delayed, and looked sometimes in doubt.

There were good reasons to wait and hope for clearer weather.

The friendly was the last in Toronto before Canada opens its home World Cup here on June 12, and the team needed to show that Saturday’s draw to Iceland was an aberration, not the leading edge of an ill-timed trend. Head coach Jesse Marsch still has roster and lineup selections to consider. His players still had cases to make.

By the end of a long night — another draw, this one scoreless, and played more in Canada’s favour — some individual fates had clearly changed. Some dreams became closer to certainties; others evaporated, like breath disappearing in the cold.

“I’ve got some tough decisions to make,” Marsch said after the final game before his 26-man roster is due May 30. “I know that.”

WATCH | Canada in scoreless draw with Tunisia:

Ralph Priso, the 23-year-old Vancouver Whitecap, was awarded his first start for the national team in part because its back line is in tatters. It lasted until the 26th minute when he came off with an apparent hamstring injury and more obvious devastation.

Bim Pepple, the new Plymouth Argyle recruit, didn’t play at all, suggesting he won’t have time to earn a late spot.

Certain other stocks rose. Marcelo Flores has almost certainly danced his way onto the World Cup squad. Daniel Jebbison seemingly lifted a place or two in the ranking of forwards. Liam Millar worked his guts out and took significant steps toward re-earning his former starting role.

“Every time I go onto the pitch, I just try to do the best that I can,” Millar said. “If I start, if I play, whatever my role is, I’m going to make sure I give my all when I’m out there.”

But for Canada, the team, this window was a hard lesson in the limits of desire, and the game another reminder that every wish has its rival.

Before the delayed kickoff, many eyes across the city, and the country, were on the UEFA playoff final between 12th-ranked Italy and Bosnia-Herzegovina, 65th in the world, in electric Zenica. The winner would round out Group B and play Canada on June 12.

It was a blistering game, won, shockingly, by the hosts in a shootout.

The Canadians had started watching it together at their hotel; by the time it was over, they were on their bus to the stadium, watching on their phones. “Not your typical bus ride,” Max Crépeau, who earned the shutout against Tunisia, said after. Canada fought its way through traffic; Bosnia-Herzegovina found its way to the World Cup.

Marsch had feigned disinterest in the result all window long until he betrayed a flicker of his truer feelings on Monday. He’d always wanted Italy — “I think that playing Italy would be outstanding,” he’d said at December’s draw — for the spectacle and attention. It was pretty for him to imagine that for one day, at least, Toronto would have been one of soccer’s capitals, frenzied and divided.

“If it’s Italy, man,” Marsch had said before it wasn’t, “then we should be ripping all those blue jerseys and burning them.”

Bosnia-Herzegovina also happens to wear blue, albeit in far fewer numbers locally. At the Brazen Head, a supposedly Irish pub near BMO Field, Italy’s loss felt funereal. The fact that the four-time champions will miss their third consecutive World Cup and Bosnia-Herzegovina will meet Canada instead is one of those truths that will take a long time to accept.

It is, nevertheless, a fact, which makes another set of facts true: 30th-ranked Canada is now clearly the second-best team in Group B by FIFA’s measures, after Switzerland (19th) and ahead of Qatar (55th) and Bosnia-Herzegovina. 

Now it will be considered a massive disappointment — a sporting catastrophe — if they don’t advance to the knockout stage, even if they weren’t playing at home.

“Every game is going to be a war,” Crépeau said. “Small margins will make the difference. One false step will make the difference.”

Here is one more fact, and Marsch and his men had better pay mind to it: Bosnia-Herzegovina survived a gauntlet to qualify. The football culture there is as intense as Italy’s, and as deserving of Tuesday’s glory. The overflowing streets of Sarajevo proved it. Its players will arrive in Toronto confident, mean-eyed, and determined to spoil Canada’s party.

They know the difference that 90 minutes can make, too.