Canadian soccer, finally on stable ground, tightens in anticipation of a historic World Cup

Jesse Marsch leads a hopeful squad aiming to capture the nation’s attention after a false start last time out

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Canada’s best had about as close to a day off as you get in Jesse Marsch’s world Wednesday morning. The national team have taken over the training campus of Toronto FC in the city’s northern crust and Matchday-minus-2 was a light session, jogging pace mostly, players doing some limbering, and a lot of looking.

The place is pancake flat, as you’d expect from a disused airport, so looming over the whole area is Rogers Stadium, an outdoor concert venue which rose out of the runway and holds 52,000 people ...for now. Noted poet of life and football Liam Gallagher helped inaugurate it last August when he saluted fans in “those stupid fucking stands up there that were built about 30 fucking minutes ago”.