MLS-based Boyz Andre Blake, Damion Lowe, Tayvon Gray and Cory Burke are familiar, as are coworkers of USMNTers in England like Bobby De Cordova-Reid, a colleague of Robinson and Tim Ream at Fulham, and Joel Latibeaudiere and Kasey Palmer, who Haji Wright shared some firsthand scouting on as their Coventry City teammate.
“We had a meeting, and a lot of us were able to speak up because we’d played either against or with a good number of guys who play for Jamaica,” said Ream.
“It puts us on higher alert, no question about it,” said Berhalter. “We’re not taking this team lightly. And now with these guys missing, it’s even more serious because we know their tendencies, but we also know – and I spoke to the team about this today – the guys that are going to get their opportunity tomorrow night, they’re going to be giving everything to show this coach they want to be part of the squad for Copa América. So it’s a dangerous game for us.”
head coach Gregg Berhalter was cautious with his words during Wednesday’s matchday-1 press conference, emphasizing as he did last week how the Reggae Boyz will be a more complicated obstacle than the series’ history, recent results or current world rankings might suggest.
“In terms of wanting to win another championship, every time we play for a trophy, it means something,” said left back Antonee “Jedi” Robinson as the USMNT trained at FC Dallas’ Toyota Soccer Center in Frisco this week. “But I want to keep winning this trophy and only let us win it, to the point it gets boring to people that we keep winning it.”
A win over the Reggae Boyz advances the US to Sunday night’s final vs. either Mexico or Panama. And as one of a few competitive opportunities in a World Cup cycle that doesn’t require a qualification process thanks to the nation co-hosting 2026 with Canada and Mexico, it also fits snugly into longer-term goals.
“We always focus on the bigger picture,” added Robinson. “We know the big, big picture at the minute’s the next World Cup, but we obviously have a lot of steps in between that. We’ve got this Nations League, Copa [América], which is probably the second biggest tournament after the World Cup that we can play in, which is going to be a real test for us.
“But we’re all looking forward to that. And then some big friendlies, more Nations League, the Gold Cup next year – so there’s plenty of opportunities to practice in knockout competition before the big one.”
