Marsch 'not telling' if Promise David could start for Canada vs. South Africa in World Cup Round of 32
Promise David scored a big goal for Canada on Wednesday, but Jesse Marsch won’t reveal if it was enough to get him into the Canadian lineup. David fulfilled a World Cup dream of his with his first touch. . .
Promise David scored a big goal for Canada on Wednesday, but Jesse Marsch won’t reveal if it was enough to get him into the Canadian lineup. David fulfilled a World Cup dream of his with his first touch against Switzerland, cutting Canada’s deficit in half and sparking energy into them that nearly pushed them to the all-important second. David lunged to get on the end of a great cross from Nathan Saliba, who himself had received a good pass from Luc de Fougerolles. It was probably the assist of the tournament so far, but it was also the latest sign that David is perhaps ready to get into Canada’s starting lineup. Marsch has never given him consistent opportunities to start, so it’s unlikely that starts at the World Cup, but there’s also an argument for riding the hot hand in tournament football. Cyle Larin and Jonathan David have two and three World Cup goals, respectively, so it’s not like they’d be losing any quality if Promise doesn’t play. He offers some extra athleticism and an ability to score goals out of nothing, which in some ways is also an argument for taking him off the bench against tired defenders. “You certainly see when Promise comes on that he’s goal dangerous, right?” Marsch said to reporters in Vancouver on Thursday. “We remain first in the tournament in xG. We still didn’t feel like we were at our best from the start, and we want to make sure that this game we are, but for a day that wasn’t our best, it certainly wasn’t terrible, right? And the day where we were still not having all of our weapons at our disposal, but we’re getting closer to that. I still think it was a really strong performance. ”Related Reading:Canada’s Promise David fulfills World Cup goal dream with first touch vs. SwitzerlandAfter “using Alphonso Davies as a decoy” against Switzerlandby saying he was going to play when he wasn’t, Marsch is leaning fully into the bit that people can’t necessarily take what he says to the media as fact. “I’m not telling you [if David will start]. What if I tell you? It’s probably a lie anyway?” Marsch said, drawing a laugh from the circle of reporters around him. Whatever option Marsch goes with on Sunday will be praised or scrutinized depending on how the game plays out. Just don’t expect to find out who’s starting until an hour before kickoff.