The USMNT beat Canada 1-0 at Allianz Field in St. Paul on Tuesday to finish a perfect four-win window under Mauricio Pochettino, but the conversation both before and after the match was about the apparent animosity between the two teams. So it brings up some questions — is this a real burgeoning rivalry with some bite? Have Canada outgrown their role as Concacaf’s polite third wheel?

Canada committed 10 fouls in the first 25 minutes of the match on Tuesday, and one of them was an injury-inducing hit to Justin Ellis’ leg from Stephen Eustaquio in the 21st minute. Ellis limped off, came back, and was actually sharp enough eight minutes later to finish Alex Freeman’s cross for the lone goal of the night. Though, as ESPN put it, the rest of that half looked more like a street fight than a soccer game.

I’d stop short of calling Canada dirty, though. Both sides picked up two yellow cards, and Eustaquio himself went down hard after a late Gio Reyna challenge and was subbed off at halftime. Marsch said afterward that the midfielder felt something ‘crack’ in his shoulder. By the end there had been 41 fouls in a match where the referee appeared to lose control of the proceedings from the very first whistle.

Then there’s Jesse Marsch himself, who is maybe the only reason this storyline exists at all. He spoke bitterly in 2023 about how he was treated when he went after the U.S. job, and since taking over Canada he has led them to a Copa América semifinal and, this summer, the World Cup round-of-16. The former Leeds United boss has seemingly, to the naked eye, been on a campaign to prove to U.S. Soccer that overlooking him was a mistake they will come to regret. At times, however, he feels far more like a scorned lover looking for vengeance. This week, though, he pushed back on that. 

“There’s definitely not a grudge,” he said. “People want to take it that way, which is fine. I don’t mind. I think you know me well enough to know that I don’t really care what people think too much. You learn in this job that everyone’s going to try to pretend like they know you, but obviously I’m also making polarized statements at times. 

“So for me personally, I can honestly say this, in all three of the matches where we’ve been tasked with playing the U.S. is I know that the U.S. is a good team and they’re someone that we measure ourselves against and I want to do everything I can to give these guys the best opportunity to go out and play at their best and win the match.”

He didn’t exactly go quiet after that, either. Marsch also criticized FIFA’s decision to let Folarin Balogun play in the World Cup’s round-of-16 after a red card in the previous round, and tied it to the U.S. President Donald Trump’s influence over football’s governing body. Marsch said he felt it would not have happened in any other country, claiming “this is why everyone around the world hates America.”

“As Americans, we have been inundated with propaganda since we were young,” Marsch said in the same press conference. “We’re the number one country in the world, we deserve everything, number one in every aspect of life, this is what we’ve been told. So, when things happen and we don’t feel like we’re in control of it, we feel like we deserve to be treated differently because we’re Americans. That is one of the things that infuriates the rest of the world about Americans.”

Away from Marsch it made sense that for a long time Canada has felt like a little brother on the regional soccer stage. The USMNT is ahead in the ‘rivalry’ with 18 wins to 12, with 13 draws. But let’s look at the recent results. Canada had won the last two meetings heading into Tuesday, and were 3-2-2 over the last seven coming in, including a 2-1 friendly win in 2024 and a 2-1 win in the 2025 Nations League third-place game. The little brother is starting to win a few more arguments when it matters.

So is it a hate-fueled rivalry? I don’t think so. It has the ingredients: neighboring nations with a political chasm growing between them, close results, trophy tussles, and a coach with a bone to pick. What it doesn’t have, for me, is real animosity outside of the stadium and in the spectator’s seats like when the USMNT and Mexico clash. That latter point is changing however, the United States’ national anthem has been jeered in Canadian stadiums recently as a result of the political climate between the two nations.

Since 2025, U.S. policy has pushed the long-standing alliance with Canada into one of its worst periods in decades. Diplomacy has reportedly broken down and tensions peaked this summer when the U.S. imposed hefty tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian exports after talks collapsed, and Canada retaliated in September. Any international football fan knows one thing — political differences can ratchet up the animosity on the pitch tenfold.

Back on the soccer side of things, however, Marsch is doing his part to light a fire under the matchup, but zingers in the press conference only go so far. Canada will have to be seen as competitors here to stay before the likes of the United States and Mexico will pull them into their hate-fueled, complicated relationship.