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CNN Indonesia

Wednesday, July 10, 2024 02:03 IWST

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

Canadian national team coach Jesse Marsch has ordered his players not to let that happen. Lionel Messi free to “roam” his team’s territory in the semi-final Copa America 2024 in New Jersey, USA, Wednesday (10/7) morning WIB.

“We have several things that we are going to try to make things difficult for Messi. We understand that limiting his space is the number one thing. We do not allow him to run freely in our back line, much less run in front of our goalkeeper,” Marsch said, as quoted by AFP.

The American coach further admitted that the Canadian national team players allowed Messi to move freely during the first match of the Copa America 2024. At that time, Canada lost 0-2 against Team Tango.

“We didn’t play well enough when we met Messi in the last game. He ran too freely towards our goalkeeper. For tomorrow, we won’t mark him. But he will be our focal point and will determine how we defend. Everything about him will be very important,” said the former Leeds United manager.

The Canadian national team, which is the first team in the Copa America 2024, managed to qualify for the semi-finals after beating Venezuela on penalties. Meanwhile, Argentina beat Ecuador on penalties.

Lionel Messi himself did not perform well with the Argentina national team at the Copa America 2024. The Inter Miami player failed to score a goal until the semi-finals.

Marsch said he was happy Canada will get a second chance against Argentina. Marsch promised the Canadian national team would not play defense against Team Tango in the 2024 Copa America semifinals.

“We will face the best team in the world in the semi-finals. We are very happy about that. We have to play our best against Argentina. We are very happy with our current progress and we have the right to try again. [lawan Argentina]. And we will treat it as such,” Marsch said.

“We will be positive. We will be aggressive. We will not sit back and just try to defend. We will try to play the way we play and then see if we can survive,” Marsch added.

(har)