For a team with so much potential on the transition, Canada can’t rely on their defensive structure to keep them in games for long enough. Of the eight goals they conceded in four games under Biello, seven could be pinned on a defensive lapse.

In that 3-2 loss to Jamaica in Toronto, both Eustaquio and Kone were dispossessed in build-up, before the former gave away the decisive penalty with a clumsy handball. Four days earlier in the first leg of that Nations League quarter-final, a 2-1 away win for Canada, they were not switched on from a quick free kick, while a 4-1 defeat in Japan featured a miscued clearance, a calamitous own goal and another loss of possession leading directly to a dangerous attack.

Biello used four different centre-backs in those matches, while legendary goalkeeper Milan Borjan — left out of the Copa squad by Marsch at age 36 — has been replaced by Maxime Crepeau since that Jamaica tie.

Particularly if Canada want to make the most out of wing-back roles for Davies and Buchanan, they need more security across the back line.