Chris Jones is in Wales with the Canada male soccer team for Tuesday’s friendly, as the preparations for the FIFA World Cup continue next year.
Ismael Koné, the mercurial midfielder sometimes from Canada, looked at his chest, as if his uniform could help him find the right words.
“I think it’s hard for me as a person to show what it is,” he said. “I care about this shirt and this team more than anything.”
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The senior collaborator of CBC Sports, Chris Jones, throws some light on what he observed after the victory of Canada against Romania, and the disgust shown by midfielder Ismael Koné during the game.
During the friendly of last Friday against Romania, his passion expressed himself more negatively. With Canada leading 2-0, but the local team began to meet, Chief coach Jesse Marsch took Koné in favor of Nathan Saliba from the most defensive mind.
Koné unleashed his disappointment, went to the bank and then returned to Marsch for more, retained only by the reserve goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair.
An emotional Koné did not talk to journalists after the game, which Canada won, 3-0, the first male victory in Europe since 2011. He walked to the bus with his black hood on his face and the arm of the staff of a team around his back.
The 23 -year -old was not available during the weekend when the team traveled from Bucharest to Swansea, where Canada will play Wales on Tuesday night.
He finally spoke on Monday, flanked by his coach. In an unusual revelation, Marsch had already said that Koné will begin against Wales when a different manager could have punished him.
“Every game that I play with the national team is an opportunity to return that trust,” Koné said.
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The senior collaborator of CBC Sports Chris Jones about the growing camaraderie of Canada’s male soccer team.
It is an undeniable talent, a creative engine and distributor of the ball, and had played much before its extraction against Romania. But her replacement, and her response to her, was a demonstration of her weakness as a player and her challenge as a man: it does not always fit.
Koné’s drama increased due to his high profile clashes with Roberto de Zerbi, his club manager during a brief and unfortunate spell in Marseille. In February, in the middle of Koné’s first season with the French giants, he lent Rennes, after Zerbi said that the Canadian “has not shown me that he is able to be part of this project.”
Koné was lent to Sassuolo in July. Not long after, Marseille launched internal documentary images of an almost physical fight between Zerbi and Koné, after the manager expressed his frustration with the amount of touches that his player was taking during a drill.
“Call his agent,” Zerbi shouted to Koné, his relationship was apparently cut forever.
Marsch, whose own career as a player was sometimes marked by the temperament in the field, has been in a decalciation campaign since the game last week in Romania.
The two men sat together shortly after the team arrived in Swansea.
“I always think it’s an opportunity for people to strengthen,” Marsch said. “I can unequivocally say that Ismael, after we talk, and that we can really understand ourselves, that we are closer to what we have been.”
Marsch later sat for an exclusive interview with CBC Sports.
“I have invested a lot in Ismael,” he said. “When I was upset about leaving, he didn’t bother me.
“That is part of the human being. We do not always see things in the same way. It is easy to be a coach when things are black and black. But it is the middle part, the colorful part, where it is the great reward. That is the truth about Ismael. It does not think the same as the other types. It is a bit special.”
Look | 3-0 Win is the first in Canada in Europe since 2011:
It was a 3-0 victory for Canada over Romania on Friday when Ali Ahmed scored his first professional goal for his national team, with Jonathan David and Niko Sigur also adding markers in Bucharest.
The incident was particularly surprising because the Marsch team has shown a remarkable camaraderie. Not wanting to get out of the field too, by default, it means that you do not want someone else to appear. Koné apologized to his teammates, and Saliba, his substitute, was one of the fastest to forgive him.
“Ismael is really a good guy,” said Saliba. “It is not a guy like this. We completely understand how it can happen. Each player has ambitions. It is important to have ambitions.”
It is also important that players understand when the ambitions of their team are presented before theirs. On Tuesday against Wales, Ismael Koné will have the opportunity to show what he has learned during this important European window. You don’t need to align exactly. You need to recognize that there are lines, and then find your place in space between them.
