Canada's dream World Cup run ended on Saturday when they crashed out with a 3-0 loss to Morocco in the last 16, but coach Jesse Marsch said he could not have been prouder of his players after a performance he believed deserved a different outcome.
Les Rouges, who had rewritten the record books by earning their first World Cup point, opens new tab, first World Cup victory and first knockout-stage win, dominated for long stretches against the seventh-ranked Moroccans, but were left to rue missed chances, costly errors and the absence of talisman Alphonso Davies.
"I'm very proud to be the Canadian national team coach, and as proud as I am, I'm even more proud of the way our boys played today," Marsch told reporters.
Davies missed the match after suffering a hamstring setback, having played only a few minutes in the tournament.
"We want players on the pitch that are 100% to play the game, I wasn't there yet," Davies told reporters. "It was tough sitting there, watching the game, knowing you know that I'm not 100%."
Marsch said Canada had shown throughout the tournament that they belonged among the world's elite.
"Before today, if you would have said your team's going to play like that, I would have said, 'okay, there's a good chance we're going to win the match','" Marsch said.
"Thought we totally controlled the number seven team in the world in the first half, total control. There was one team on the pitch. And then we weren't able to make the play.
"Even at the start of the second half, we were the aggressor, we were the ones that looked more likely to score."
Morocco's opener changed the complexion of the game, Marsch said, allowing the North Africans to sit deeper as Canada chased an equaliser.
Canada's task was made immeasurably harder by the loss of Bayern Munich wing-back Davies, whose World Cup was wrecked by injury.
"He didn't feel right yesterday in training, and we got an MRI, and it was clear, but his hamstring didn't feel right," Marsch said.
"It killed him more than anyone, but I think it was the right decision to preserve him and his career and get him fully healthy."
The American coach urged his players and Canadian soccer as a whole to view the tournament as a springboard rather than a missed opportunity.
Marsch, who waved away television cameras when he gathered his team on the pitch for a post-game huddle, said Canada's challenge now was to raise the standards established during the tournament.
"I challenged them to understand that we can play like this all the time," he said. "Against the best teams in the world, we can be better on the day.
"The challenge is, can we hold that standard for 90 minutes? Can we continue to build the depth of what we're doing with the team? Can we build a real Canadian DNA into the kind of football we want to play?"
For Marsch, Canada's first home World Cup campaign ended with heartbreak but also belief that the programme has entered a new era.
