It was a successful September international window for the CanMNT, who went to Europe and left with two road wins against solid opposition under their belt.
After a tough end to their summer, which saw them exit from the Gold Cup in the quarter-finals, it was the perfect response from Jesse Marsch’s side, who picked up back-to-back road wins vs. European opposition for the first time ever with their 3-0 win vs. Romania in Bucharest and 1-0 win vs. Wales in Swansea.
And not only did they pick up two assertive victories, but they showed some growth across both matches, too, doing well to work on the sort of things many felt they didn’t do well enough at the Gold Cup. From being more dangerous in possession, being better in the second half of games, and being more pragmatic when defending a lead, Canada did well to improve in all of those areas, and more.
Along with the impressive play of several individuals, it was hard to find much fault with Canada’s performances this camp – to that point, Marsch even called it the “best 10 days” he’d had with the team since taking over in May of 2024.
“These 10 days and how we’ve used them and maximized them, it was probably the best 10 days we’ve had together,” Marsch told reporters after the Wales win.
Now, the goal will be for Canada to build off this, as the work is far from over for them, with the days quickly dwindling on their road to the World Cup next summer.
At the same time, it’s not as if they shouldn’t celebrate the successes they have, no matter how small and large they might be (even if their opponents don’t like it), and they certainly earned the right to do so this window.
Craig Bellamy spoke about his disapproval of the Canada celebrations after Wales suffered a 1-0 friendly defeat 💭 pic.twitter.com/KcolYABmgU
— Sky Sports (@SkySports) September 10, 2025
To return to what they showed in this camp, though, another big thing stood out from Canada’s two performances – they were quite effective with their high press, as has been the case for most games they’ve played under Marsch.
Interestingly, though, instead of going all-out with their pressing across both games, they showed good versatility, slightly adjusting their defensive set-up for both of their opponents.
Against Romania, they were a lot more aggressive with their press, pushing numbers high up the pitch, and that allowed them to win the ball in some pretty dangerous areas – including in Romania’s box on their second goal.
GOAL 🇨🇦🇨🇦
ALI AHMED presses and then snatches the ball off the Romanian ‘keeper to tap in for a 2-0 lead 😎
🔴 Watch LIVE on TSN & OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/nl9sv6HdGP
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) September 5, 2025
More specifically, they seemed a lot more likely to trigger their press when the ball was with Romania’s centre backs or full backs, as they tried to win the ball before the ball crossed the halfway line. 
An example of Canada pressing more aggressively vs. Romania, as several Canadian players step to press Romania as they try and build out of the back, starting the trigger with the Romania right back playing a pass backwards. They nearly succeeded, too, if not for a foul at the end (via OneSoccer/TSN)
In the Wales match, though, Canada tweaked their line of engagement, as they were more cautious with where they started their press, instead waiting for the ball to hit certain areas of the pitch before triggering guys into action. Compared to the Romania game, for example, they left Wales’ centre backs alone, and only pressed the full backs if one took a bad touch or turned their back. 
Here’s a prime example of how much more passive Canada’s press was vs. Wales. Instead of pressing high up the field, as they typically would in the first minute of a match, they’re content to let Wales’ centre backs play the ball between them, before springing into action when Wales tries to break the line, eventually recovering the ball before it reaches their final third (via OneSoccer/TSN)
To be fair, this isn’t the first time Canada has employed a slightly more passive press – they actually did it quite successfully in just their second game under Jesse Marsch, a 0-0 draw with France, for example – but it’s worth noting that they had some better success against Wales by some key metrics.
Against France, they allowed 18.81 passes per defensive action (PPDA), although they did well to pick up 20 middle third recoveries and 18 final third recoveries – the latter figure, in particular, is quite impressive. Thanks to that, they kept a dangerous French side to just 10 shots for a total of 1.25 xG, with none of them breaching their net.
In this Wales match, though, they had a PPDA of 9.42, doing so thanks to the fact that they picked up 31 middle third recoveries and 13 final third recoveries, which allowed them to keep Wales to just six shots for a total of 0.92 xG – all of those figures are very strong (and shows how much they’ve improved defensively since that France match. 
This clip shows that Canada did have some aggressive pressing triggers vs. Wales, this time pouncing into action after a pass back from a full back (a common sight). Wales almost plays through it, to their credit, but Canada then narrowly recovered the ball in the middle third (via OneSoccer/TSN)
By comparison, to return to just the game before against Romania, Canada had a PPDA of 9.94 and made 30 middle third recoveries and 11 final third recoveries, keeping Romania to 11 shots and just 1.04 xG, which were also good defensive figures – but not wildly different ones from what they had vs. Wales. 
Another example of Canada triggering a press a lot earlier vs. Romania, as they spring into action while the ball is still with the centre backs, allowing them to win the ball near half (via OneSoccer/TSN)
What that shows, though, is that Canada proved in this Wales game that they can be effective at pressing without needing to be as aggressive, which is an important detail to consider, as that hasn’t always been the case for them. 
This clip is a bit longer but it shows what Canada did so well against Wales. For the most part, they sit back, and let Wales take their time on the ball, but they still spring to action on a few triggers (a sloppy touch, a full back playing backwards, a player turning their back on the ball). Thanks to that, they eventually force Wales into a long ball that Canada would go onto recover (via OneSoccer/TSN)
Of course, Canada would like to press like they did against Romania in every match that they play, but that’s not always going to be realistic, as some teams will be better equipped with how they want to play through that press.
A great clip from the Romania game, in which Canada hunts down the ball for a minute (starting with the action showed a couple of clips earlier in this article), creating several dangerous chances from their press. A prime example of what ‘Marsch-ball’ looks like at its best (via OneSoccer/TSN)
Against Wales, they seemed to be aware of that, and they adjusted by being far more aggressive in midfield, instead of higher up the pitch, knowing that Wales seemed to have a bit more composure when building up from the back.
Yet, that’s the biggest area of growth Canada will have to contend with when it comes to their press going forward. In some matches, they’ll be able to win the ball high up the pitch, but what about those matches where opponents bypass that press with quick passing or by going long?
With this Wales match, they seemed to offer a solution for the former, and perhaps it can now also offer them a solution for the latter, which did hurt them at the Gold Cup.
At that tournament, teams opted to bypass Canada’s press by going long, which was shown in the fact that Canada’s opponents went long 39.5 times per game at that tournament – by comparison, Romania went long 31 times, and Wales 33 times in these games.
Because of that, it’s worth noting that Canada actually had pretty good defensive metrics at the Gold Cup when it came to their press – their average PPDA was 6.86, and while that’s inflated by the fact that they had a PPDA of 3.14 (!!) in a 2-0 win vs. nine-player El Salvador, they still had a PPDA of 10.8 against Guatemala despite playing half of that game down a player, for example.
At the same time, though, there isn’t any question of what Canada’s press can do defensively, and that’s continued to manifest itself in the fact that they’ve conceded just 20 goals in 23 games under Marsch, with their clean sheets this window being the 10th and 11th time they’ve held an opponent scoreless.
No matter how high they press or deep they sit, they’ve struck a good balance in knowing how to protect their net, and this window was just a continuation of that.
So why specifically hone in on the press from this window? There’s also the value that it provides to Canada’s attack, especially in terms of the way that they were able to win the ball in central areas and counter from there.
That’s key, because there’s no doubting that Canada is at their most dangerous when they win the ball high up the field – that almost goes without saying. There’s a reason why pressing has become so popular in the modern game, as teams know that there’s a lot of value in winning the ball as close to an opponent’s goal as possible.
But what about when you win the ball in the middle third of the field? In theory, the opponent is still destabilized when that happens, so those moments are still pretty dangerous.
This window, Canada did a good job of winning the ball in the middle third, both with their wide and central midfielders, and that made a difference.
For example, against Wales, there were a few times where midfielders Nathan Saliba and Ismaël Koné recovered the ball in midfield and immediately turned that into dangerous attacks, which made a big difference for Canada. 
Here’s a clip of Ismaël Koné winning the ball in a good position, and then turning it into a fantastic chance (via OneSoccer/TSN)
And here’s Saliba doing the same with a great step – he just then lets himself down with the execution of the next action (via OneSoccer/TSN)
Along with the work that Ali Ahmed did on the left side, also winning a few important balls high up the pitch, that also made a big difference.
This was the story of Ali Ahmed’s camp for the CanMNT – winning the ball high up the field, and then turning defence into offence. (via OneSoccer/TSN)
In particular, Saliba was a machine vs. Wales, making eight interceptions and 11 recoveries as a starter in that match – well above the average of 5 interceptions and 10 recoveries the typical ‘Jesse Marsch midfielder’ would tend to get in a game, which is quite key to note.
Here’s Saliba’s interceptions (left) and recoveries (right) from the Wales game. As seen on both maps, he had a lot of actions in the middle of the park, but also in Wales’ half – he had five interceptions and six recoveries in that side of the pitch (WyScout)
Yet, when speaking about someone like Saliba, that’s where the evolution of Canada’s press can be seen. A year ago, they had a handful of players who could play Marsch’s system to a tee, such as Jonathan David, Stephen Eustáquio and Moïse Bombito.
Now, though, they’ve got several players at each position who can fulfill what’s required of them defensively, like Saliba in midfield – to that point, Ali Ahmed out wide, Tani Oluwaseyi up front and Luc De Fougerolles are three other great examples of other players who have also stepped up similarly.
Plus, what’s huge about that development is that they’ve now got a wider pool of players who can offer certain value to different games. For example, to stick with Saliba, he’s more of a slick, ball-playing midfielder, which is a bit of a different profile than some of Canada’s other players at his position.
Therefore, in this Wales game, one where he was excelling defensively, he was also playing just as big a role in jumpstarting attacks with his passing ability.
Yet, that helps explain Canada’s success with their press in this window. Overall, these two games weren’t really anomalies statistically, as Canada’s final third recoveries and PPDA were right within their average under Marsch, and their offensive stats didn’t pop out either, other than the fact that this Romania game was their fourth-best game in terms of shot attempts under Marsch, and Wales their seventh. 
To highlight the difference between Canada’s press vs. Romania and Wales again, here’s a chart of Canada’s interceptions from the Romania match (left) and Wales match (right). As seen here, they contested 11% of their interceptions in the final third vs. Romania compared to 9% vs. Wales – by comparison, they had just 23% of their interceptions in the middle third compared to 31% against Wales, showing the areas in which they recovered the ball (WyScout).
At the same time, that shows that they didn’t need their press to be churning out final third recoveries and forcing Romania and Wales into constant errors to be effective offensively – they just needed to generate the right recoveries and errors, which they got throughout this window. When speaking about how Canada’s press has evolved under Marsch, that’s the most important thing to note.
Lastly, here’s a comparison of the ground duels Canada contested vs. Romania (left) and Wales (right). Once again, it’s seen that they contested more duels in the final third vs. Romania, compared to more duels in the middle third vs. Wales (WyScout)
Now, it must be said that there are still things to watch out for with Canada’s press, namely, with what they do when teams bypass them with the long ball. For as good as their press was this window, they were facing two teams that preferred to hold possession, which is always going to benefit Canada’s press – Canada struggled at the Gold Cup when faced off against teams that went long with the ball and then sat back.
Perhaps, though, that is another big learning lesson from this camp – with Canada’s newfound depth, perhaps they can use that to their advantage, especially in terms of how they deploy players at certain positions.
For example, with it being so hard for Marsch to settle certain battles up front and in midfield, it could make sense for him to adjust his squad for certain opponents, something he actually did quite well against Wales by giving Saliba a start. While Saliba’s insertion was a forced change with usual midfielder starter Stephen Eustáquio absent, Marsch could’ve easily put in Mathieu Choinière as an Eustáquio replacement, which would’ve been more of a natural change – but instead, he chose Saliba, who ended up bringing something completely different to the game.
That’s something to watch going forward, as maybe Canada can try to tackle games against teams who will go long by tweaking their midfield group, picking two midfielders better suited for breaking down teams from deep instead of two players likely to press high, given that side of their game would be neutralized in such a game – and the same goes at the striker position when they’re choosing between someone who might stretch the game vs. someone who is better suited for playing against a low block, for example.
At the same time, within their team, some players can adapt to different set-ups – Canada did have nine out of 11 of the same starters in the Romania and Wales games, after all – showing that even making little tactical tweaks with the same group can be enough for them to be effective.
Certainly, that last point is very key to watch going forward, as Marsch did mention this camp that he wants to keep more of a settled lineup, one based on form more than anything, instead of changing things just to change, so we might just see Canada make a lot more little tweaks from game-to-game instead of wholesale changes.
“I’ve told the players that we’re going to be leaning more toward players having to earn minutes from here on,” Marsch said after the Romania game. “It’s the national team, that’s the way it should be.”
That’s not to say he won’t tweak things on a tactical basis, but gone are the days when he’ll throw guys in just to throw them in, in his words – although, with how wide his depth pool has come, enough guys have forced their way into the discussion for him to consider that, anyway.
For example, when choosing between Koné, Saliba and Choinière, who have all earned starting roles for Canada, one has to imagine their profiles are now going to play a bigger role in whether or not they start – like it did with Saliba vs. Wales – helping give Marsch’s side slightly more flexibility when needed.