{"id":863536,"date":"2026-06-13T02:20:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T02:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/863536\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T02:20:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T02:20:24","slug":"clint-dempsey-rips-jesse-marsch-following-usmnt-national-anthem-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/863536\/","title":{"rendered":"Clint Dempsey rips Jesse Marsch following USMNT national anthem comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clint Dempsey did not like Jesse Marsch questioning the pride of U.S. soccer players.<\/p>\n

The former USMNT star fired back at Marsch, now leading Canada into the World Cup, who claimed Thursday that staffers sometimes had to \u201cbeg\u201d American players to sing the national anthem<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t take this guy too seriously,\u201d Dempsey said when asked about his former coach\u2019s comments on Fox on Friday. \u201cIt was an honor for me growing up and representing my country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marsch, who served as a USMNT assistant at the 2010 World Cup, of which Dempsey was a member, made the comment while praising his Canada squad ahead of Friday\u2019s World Cup opener against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys belt it out to the top of their lungs because they want to show the country how proud they are to be Canadians and to represent what Canada is,\u201d he said of his new squad.<\/p>\n

\"TeamTeam Canada manager Jesse Marsch. REUTERS<\/p>\n

That did not sit well with Dempsey, one of the most decorated players in U.S. soccer history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the national anthem happened, I wasn\u2019t someone who normally would sing,\u201d Dempsey said. \u201cI put my hand over my heart and I\u2019d pray to the good man upstairs. I\u2019m someone who\u2019s bled for this country. I broke my nose playing for this country. I\u2019ve come back from two heart procedures and played for this country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to take advice from someone who switched to the other side and is singing another country\u2019s national anthem. And as my boy [Thierry Henry] would say, \u2018stay in your own lane.\u2019 It looks like he\u2019s in a dang moped, so worry about your own team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ClintClint Dempsey prior to the United States playing Canada in the CONCACAF Nations League third place match at SoFi Stadium on March 23, 2025 in Inglewood, California. Getty Images for USSF<\/p>\n

Dempsey scored 57 goals for the national team, which is tied with Landon Donovan for the most in USMNT history, and played in three World Cups.<\/p>\n

The back-and-forth came just hours before both teams opened their World Cup campaigns, with Canada playing north of the border and the U.S. beginning its tournament in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

Marsch, whose team will take on Qatar and Switzerland in its remaining group games, is the first American to manage Canada\u2019s men\u2019s national team. Canada finished their first match in a 1-1 draw with Bosnia. <\/p>\n

The U.S. kicks off its tournament against Paraguay on Friday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clint Dempsey did not like Jesse Marsch questioning the pride of U.S. soccer players. The former USMNT star…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":863537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[330032,11242,221,62,67,132,68,33686,21490,105860],"class_list":["post-863536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-clint-dempsey","tag-jesse-marsch","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-us-mens-national-team","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116740413331809811","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}