For USMNT, Thursday's trip to Jamaica is about winning 'the game within the game'
With all due respect to the night of March 30, 2022, when the United States men's national soccer team qualified for that year's World Cup after missing out in 2018, the most important moment in the last decade-plus for the USMNT was FIFA's decision to award its 2026 showpiece event to the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
That news came just eight months after the country's three-decade-long streak of World Cup appearances was snapped with a shocking loss in Couva, Trinidad, and it guaranteed the Americans not just participation in 2026, but also a favorable draw on home soil.
For any team, the downside to hosting a World Cup is vanishingly small. The only obvious one is the dearth of high-stakes qualifying matches, the sort that tend to battle-harden squads by the time they earn their place on the biggest stage in sports. Games contested on enemy territory are the most challenging of all. And they're even more valuable, experience-wise.
That's why for the current version of the USMNT, Thursday's trip to Jamaica for the first leg of their two-contest, totals-goals-wins Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal is so important for new coach Mauricio Pochettino and his players.
"It's obviously going to be a tough place to go," Christian Pulisic said on Wednesday, shortly before boarding the USMNT's charter flight to the Jamaican capital of Kingston, where the U.S. has won just once in seven competitive matches all-time.
In a quirk of scheduling, Thursday will mark the second consecutive away game for the Americans, who lost a rare friendly in Mexico last month to chief rival El Tri. The lessons learned from that ugly 2-0 loss must be applied on Tuesday.
Pochettino — who was without eight starters, including star forward Pulisic — publicly backed his players' effort in Guadalajara in his post-match press conference. Privately, he was less pleased.
"I don't want to open the doors too much, because sometimes the messaging between the coaching staff and the players can be personal," U.S. keeper Matt Turner said on Tuesday. "But from my perspective, I think we just didn't do enough of the little things in the game.
"I'm not talking about tactics, and I'm not talking about quality," Turner continued. "I'm talking about backing each other up when hard tackles and challenges came in, getting on the referee…losing duels all over the pitch.
"There's the game and there's tactics. And then on the other side, there's the game within the game. And for us, we lost that part of the game in a big way, and obviously the result reflected that."
It helps that Pulisic is back for this one. So are a number of others who missed the Mexico game, like defender Chris Richards, midfielder Weston McKennie, and forwards Ricardo Pepi and Tim Weah.
The fact that nine players on the current 25-man U.S. roster have played in Jamaica before, a 1-1 tie midway through the 2022 World Cup qualifying cycle, can't hurt either.
The Reggae Boyz are better now than they were then, though. Led by former England manager Steve McLaren, Jamaica boasts five Premier League players on this month roster, with recent dual-citizen commit Isaac Hayden of Newcastle United looking to make his debut against Pochettino's side.
"They're obviously a team with a lot of good athletes, a very physical team, and one that I think has improved a lot as well in recent years," Pulisic said.
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Add in the bumpy field and searing temperatures — Thursday's high in Kingston will be close to 90-degrees, with the relative humidity around 80-percent at kickoff — and Pulisic and his teammates are expecting more bar brawl than beautiful game.
"We have to match the intensity before trying to play," midfielder Yunus Musah said. "We have to really be ready to fight."
A win or a tie would set the U.S. up well for the all-important rematch in St. Louis on Nov. 18. Whatever the outcome, Thursday also promises to be an important step on the road toward 2026 — even if the Americans aren't necessarily thinking big-picture.
"It's easy to look ahead," Pulisic said. "The main objective right now is to beat Jamaica. That's truly the only thing on our minds. I think we have to take this step by step. This is what's in front of us right now, and we have to put on a really dominating, strong performance."
"That's our goal first and foremost," Pulisic added. "If we can do that, we can obviously build on that."
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports. A staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he has covered United States men's and women's national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.
