Jonathan Osorio is a professional footballer, but he’s also a football fan.
As a kid growing up in Brampton, Ont., the current Toronto FC captain would run around in his backyard emulating the game’s biggest stars he’d watched on TV with his father, Diego, a native of Colombia.
He still remembers watching the 2001 Copa América, when Colombia hosted the tournament and won it for the first and only time with a thrilling 1-0 victory over Mexico in the final in Bogotá. Twenty-three years later, Osorio will get the chance to play in the Copa América for Canada, who will make its debut in the South American championship being held in the United States from June 20 to July 14.
The veteran midfielder is the most experienced member of Canada’s 26-man Copa roster, with 72 caps to his credit. Since making his international debut in 2013, he’s played in a FIFA World Cup, the Concacaf Gold Cup and the Concacaf Nations League final. One of the nine goals he scored for his country came in a World Cup qualifier against Mexico at legendary Estadio Azteca, considered one of the greatest cathedrals of world soccer.
But being able to compete at the Copa América holds a special place in the heart of a player who spent part of his formative years playing for the youth academy of Nacional, one of the biggest clubs in Uruguay, and who is immensely proud of his South American background.
“I can tell you that this is very special to me because of my roots, my Colombian roots. I grew up watching Copa América. I always remember watching 2001 when they won their only one and how big that was for my family in Canada, how big it was for the relatives I had in Colombia,” Osorio told Sportsnet.
“This is a special moment for me, but I feel like if anything it’s even bigger for my family. It’s a proud moment for them and for myself. I never thought I would have the chance to play in a Copa América and to have that chance now is just amazing.”
Canada enters the Copa as outsiders, ranked No. 49 in the world, well behind Group A opponents Argentina (No. 1), Peru (No. 32) and Chile (No. 42). Between them, those three nations have won the tournament 19 times, and Argentina is the defending champion, as well as the current World Cup holder.
It’s fair to say that the shine has worn off the Canadian men’s team since its fabulous run through the Concacaf qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The team bowed out in the first round of the tournament in Qatar on the back of three consecutive losses and was eliminated after its first two games, while managing to score only a single goal.
Results since Qatar haven’t been much better. The Canadians put in a meek performance in losing to the United States in last year’s Concacaf Nations League final. They followed that up with a tepid run to the quarter-finals of the Gold Cup, where they once again lost to the U.S. A two-legged, aggregate defeat to Jamaica in November meant it didn’t even qualify for the final four of this year’s Nations League. John Herdman unexpectedly stepped down as coach last summer, leaving the program in the lurch.
But there is renewed hope following last month’s hiring of Jesse Marsch, a 50-year-old native of Wisconsin. Marsch is a former MLS star and U.S. international who previously coached European clubs Red Bull Salzburg (leading them to a pair of Austrian league titles), RB Leipzig in the German Bundesliga and English outfit Leeds United.
His first two matches in charge earlier this month saw the Canadians suffer a 4-0 loss to the Netherlands in Rotterdam and earn a credible 0-0 draw vs. France in Bordeaux.
Canada put in a solid opening 45 minutes against the seventh-ranked Dutch before running out of gas in the second half and went toe-to-toe for 90 minutes against No. 2 France. Had winger Liam Millar’s curling shot from distance early in the second half been a touch lower instead of smacking the crossbar, we’d be talking about a famous win over the French right now.
Things won’t get any easier for Canada, who’ll take on Lionel Messi and Argentina in the opening match of the Copa América on Thursday in Atlanta. On paper, this is a mismatch pitting the upstart Concacaf nation against the reigning World Cup champions.
But the strength of Canada’s recent performances against two European giants in the Netherlands and France gives it a major boost of self-belief going into the competition.
“Probably more so from the France game, but there were a lot of positives from both games. We learned a lot about ourselves in the second half of that Dutch game, which helped us going into the game against France. We can take a lot of confidence from those two games, feeling the speed of play against those types of teams at that level. That’s going to help us and be fresh in our minds as we go into this first match against the defending world champions,” Osorio said.
Only by routinely testing itself against the best teams in international soccer can Canada hope to become a competitive force when it co-hosts the 2026 World Cup. That’s one reason why the Copa América is so important for the Canadians, as it allows them to go up against the best that South America has to offer.
Osorio insists it’s much more than just about building towards 2026, though.
“Listen, we want to perform well, but we want to get results, too. That’s the next step for us. We want to get results. We’re not here just to put on good performances and then have people talking great things about us. No, no. We want to advance, we want to make history and we want to get results, which is the next step for us,” Osorio said.
Marsch’s appointment marks a new way of doing things for the national team. The American is a disciple of German coach Ralf Rangnick, whom he served under as an assistant at RB Leipzig. Rangnick’s teams play a fairly aggressive pressing style that puts great physical demands on players who are required to engage opponents right away in order to win possession. Rangnick’s philosophies have greatly influenced Marsch, and it hardly comes as a surprise he is going to set Canada to play in a similar fashion.
“It’s exciting to try something new. One of the beautiful things about this game is that there’s so many ways to look at it, so many ways to play. … We’re a young team and the way he wants us to play is best suited for a young team. I think a lot of those things are going to be used to our advantage, so we’re excited to see where it takes us,” Osorio said.
At 32, Osorio might not seem to be a good fit for this style. But Marsch insists there is a role for Osorio to play, likening him to former U.S. international midfielder Sacha Kljestan, whom he coached when he was in charge of MLS club New York Red Bulls.
“We had an intensive [Red Bulls] team, we had a team that made it very difficult on opponents, but Sacha was like the brain in the middle of the pitch. I think Jonathan can fill a role like that where he can meet the standards of the way I want to play football with this team, but that he can also provide a little bit of savvIness and a little bit of a football connection and intuition,” Marsch explained.
Kljestan, who earned 52 caps for the U.S. and is now retired, played against Osorio several times during his time with the Red Bulls, and agrees with the comparison of his former coach.
“I see it. I think it’s a fair one. Osorio has shown over the years that he’s an experienced player who also has some quality in the final third to set up plays. But he also has a lot of capacity to do a lot of work against the ball,” Kljestan told Sportsnet.
He added: “If you polled a lot of players in MLS [about] who’s the one guy they hate playing against the most, Osorio might be one of those guys because he has an edge, and he talks s**t and he backs it up on the field… He never backed down from everything.”
Osorio appreciated Marsch’s comparison, as he always relished going up against Kljestan in MLS.
“I definitely see where he’s coming from. I played against Jesse’s [New York] team when Sacha was there, and he was a huge part of that team and their success. So, I take that as a huge compliment, and I agree that I can meet the standards of the way he wants to play physically, but also add a little bit of that brain to the team in times that we need it,” Osorio said.
John Molinaro is one of the leading soccer journalists in Canada, having covered the game for over 20 years for several media outlets, including Sportsnet, CBC Sports and Sun Media. He is currently the editor-in-chief of TFC Republic, a website dedicated to in-depth coverage of Toronto FC and Canadian soccer.