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| Brandon Vazquez/Getty |
Less than a week after the U.S. men’s national soccer team coasted to the Concacaf Nations League crown, an experimental American squad learned that defending its second regional title would not come so easily.
Fielding a largely second-string roster for the Gold Cup, North America’s long-running biennial championship, the United States needed a late equalizer from substitute Brandon Vazquez to open the tournament with 1-1 draw against Jamaica on Saturday night at Soldier Field in Chicago.
“Our goal is to just get better each day,” U.S. interim coach B.J. Callaghan said. “We were able to get better in this game, and we’re just going to continue to push to get better.”
Damion Lowe, a defender for the Philadelphia Union, scored on a 13th-minute header as Jamaica moved to 3-19-10 all time against the United States. The Reggae Boyz posed the toughest matchup of the group stage for the Americans, who are scheduled to face St. Kitts and Nevis on Wednesday in St. Louis and Trinidad and Tobago next Sunday in Charlotte.
“It’s kind of two lost points,” Jamaica Coach Heimir Hallgrímsson said. “You feel that way when you have the victory. In retrospect, I think, though, a draw was fair. So we cannot complain.”
The United States kicked off the tournament six days after it defeated Canada in Las Vegas to retain the Nations League title. Callaghan — overseeing the team until the recently rehired Gregg Berhalter takes over following the tournament — summoned a nearly full-strength squad for the Nations League, then let the likes of Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Gio Reyna rest for the Gold Cup.
Just three players from the Nations League roster — goalkeeper Matt Turner, midfielder Alan Soñora and forward Alejandro Zendejas — were in the lineup Callaghan deployed against Jamaica. But the starters also included Aaron Long, DeAndre Yedlin, Jordan Morris and Jesús Ferreira, all of whom joined Turner in representing the United States at the World Cup last fall.
The Jamaicans missed the World Cup after finishing sixth in Concacaf’s qualifying competition but bolstered their player pool by recruiting several English-born dual nationals with Premier League experience, including Everton’s Demarai Gray, Fulham’s Bobby De Cordova-Reid and West Ham’s Michail Antonio.
It was Gray who set up Lowe’s 13th-minute header, curling in a free kick from the right flank that the center back powered past Turner to open the scoring.
Jamaica nearly doubled its lead in the 29th after U.S. midfielder Aidan Morris struck Kevon Lambert in the chest with a high foot, surrendering a penalty kick. But Turner dived to his left to stone Leon Bailey’s penalty, and the Jamaica forward shanked the rebound wide of the gaping net.
“He’s a player that came to us and wanted to play both tournaments,” Callaghan said of Turner. “I always say big players make big plays, and Matt made a big play there.”
The United States controlled 68 percent of the possession but often struggled to carve out chances. Jamaica goalkeeper Andre Blake repeatedly thwarted the American opportunities that did emerge, including Jordan Morris’s one-on-one effort just before halftime and substitute Cristian Roldan’s 71st-minute one-timer.
But there was nothing Blake could do in the 88th minute, when Ferreira whipped a cross into the box, Jamaica failed to clear the danger and Vazquez pounced on the loose ball for a point-blank finish.
With the draw, the United States narrowly missed suffering just its second group-stage setback in 17 Gold Cup tournaments.
“I have to give, and I want to give, [the] U.S. credit,” Hallgrímsson said. “It was a lot of energy in the team. I think that was where they had the upper hand.”
Note: Soñora, Aidan Morris, Cade Cowell and Vazquez were cap-tied to the U.S. team after making their debuts in an official international competition. Cowell and Vazquez were eligible to play for Mexico, while Soñora was eligible for Argentina and Morris for Canada.
- Thomas Floyd
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