Cyle Larin (right) and his Canadian teammates will be in black on Tuesday when they face Tunisia in a friendly, but coach Jesse Marsch is encouraging fans to show up wearing red to support their team.Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images
While his players are busy running, tackling and generally doing whatever they can to push their cases for inclusion in Canada’s 26-man World Cup squad, head coach Jesse Marsch has a simple request of the match-going supporters in this country: wear red.
“Looking ahead to the World Cup, I want to start instituting what I think I want to call a ‘Red out,’ right?” Marsch said Monday. “I want to see our fans all in red in the whole stadium.”
That might be something of an own goal for Tuesday’s warm-up match against Tunisia, with the 47th-ranked African nation set to wear red while Canada sports its new black Nike jerseys for the first time, but Marsch is hopeful it will pay off by the time Canada’s June 12 opener rolls around.
After Tuesday’s game, the team has two more pre-World Cup friendlies scheduled: they’ll face Uzbekistan in Edmonton on June 1, and Ireland in Montreal on June 5.
Marsch said he has discussed the possibility of handing out red T-shirts with Canada Soccer president Peter Augruso and CEO Kevin Blue. But with the prospect of facing Italy in the opener in Toronto – that will be determined Tuesday afternoon when the four-time winners play Bosnia & Herzegovina for a World Cup berth – and thus anticipating what could be a compromised level of support, he’s looking to maximize the amount of fans getting behind the proverbial home team.
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“We need every stadium to be packed with red,” he reiterated. “Like, if it’s Italy, man, then we should be ripping all those blue jerseys and burning them, and we should be wearing red, right? It should be a red out, even if we play Italy.”
On Saturday, likely owing to the frigid temperatures at kickoff, much of the crowd was wearing black, in the form of heavy jackets and overcoats.
But the crowd was the least of Marsch’s problems, with Canada spotting Iceland a 2-0 lead inside the first 21 minutes before recovering for what proved a costly draw – Tajon Buchanan will be suspended Tuesday courtesy of his late red card for violent conduct.
The head coach promised changes after that match, and they have duly arrived. Liam Millar will come in for Buchanan on the right wing, Ismaël Koné will return from his own suspension for a red card in the midfield, and the Vancouver Whitecaps defender Ralph Priso will make his first full start for Canada after getting four minutes off the bench on Saturday. Priso had previously started Canada’s draw with Guatemala in January, but that match was downgraded to a B international, meaning players would not receive full caps.
Canadian striker Tani Oluwaseyi figures to be a key contributor in Tuesday's game against Tunisia in Toronto.Seth Wenig/The Associated Press
In goal, Max Crépeau will get his turn after Dayne St. Clair played against Iceland, and Tani Oluwaseyi will start up front to earn his 22nd cap for Canada.
Given that Jonathan David’s position as one of the two strikers for Canada for this year’s summer of soccer has already been written onto the team sheet in indelible black ink, it means that Oluwaseyi, Cyle Larin, Daniel Jebbison, and international newcomer Aribim Pepple are competing for the vacant spot alongside him.
It was Larin’s turn on Saturday, but the Southampton striker was unable to add to his 30 international goals. Jebbison played 26 minutes off the bench, and managed to win the second penalty that allowed David to equalize from the spot.
Tuesday will be Oluwaseyi’s opportunity to improve on the two goals he has scored at the international level.
“Every striker that we have in our in our team offers something different,” the 25-year-old said. “And I think what will serve me the best is doing the things that I do really well. Just helping the team out, whether that’s pressing, whether that’s running in behind and things like that.”
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Oluwaseyi’s rise through soccer’s ranks has been as unlikely as it has been meteoric. Born in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, he moved to Canada at 10 and grew up in Mississauga.
After a four-year career with St. John’s Red Storm in the NCAA, he was eventually drafted 17th overall by Minnesota United in Major League Soccer, where he spent the best part of four seasons, ultimately earning an $11.7-million move to Villarreal in Spain’s La Liga last August, where he plays alongside Buchanan.
“Tani is also one of our smartest players,” Marsch said. “When we give him a role on the day and then, the expectations for the role, he’s able to execute that among the best of all the guys we have, which is one of the reasons he has quality as well, and he’s fast, and he’s good around the goal, and he’s a goal scorer, but he’s intelligent.”
That intelligence and ability has led him to him scoring twice in the Champions League this season, to go along with a couple of goals in La Liga and a hat trick against Ciudad Lucena in the opening round of the Copa del Rey back in October.
But it’s those soccer smarts that crucially also allow him to dovetail with David up front. Acing that continuing chemistry experiment will be crucial for whoever harbours ambitions to start alongside David on June 12.
“I just try and make life easier for him, because that’s a hard job to do,” he said of David’s job as the principal goal scorer and offensive facilitator. “I wouldn’t say my job is easier, but I get to sit with the centre backs up top and just make life difficult for them.
“But he’s focused on both defensively pressing with me, and then offensively, making things happen for our team. It’s just a relationship that over the games we’ve played together, that we’ve built in. I think it’s served us pretty well.”
Editor’s note: In a previous version of this article, the first photo caption misidentified Cyle Larin. The photo caption has been corrected.