AS Jamaica welcome United States to the National Stadium for this evening’s Concacaf World Cup qualifier, both coaches veered away from focusing on individual threats on the other side of the fence.

“Our focus will not be on one player but the team — how well we can do against this US team. We are not going to build our game around any one player,” Jamaica’s Theodore Whitmore told journalists yesterday as he looked to today’s 5:00 pm contest.

“What is going to be key tomorrow is how well we execute and manage the game. We have to get three points; it doesn’t matter who is out there. We just have to execute what needs to be done,” he emphasised on the eve of the match.

The youthful Americans, who start the encounter as favourites, are loaded with talent throughout their squad with a number of players signed to top-tier club teams in Spain, Italy, England and Germany.

Two of Jamaica’s more prominent players — Michail Antonio and Leon Bailey — ply their trade in the English Premier League.

United States Head Coach Gregg Berhalter noted two players were absent when his team beat Jamaica 1-0 at the Gold Cup in the summer and 2-0 in the reverse qualifying fixture in Texas last month.

“We expect Antonio to be in, and Leon Bailey. They didn’t play against us last time, and they didn’t play against us at the Gold Cup either. Mexico [against whom the US won 2-0 on Friday] had a really high level of attacking quality, so does Jamaica. The rest of the team we are projecting to be pretty similar to what we’ve been facing,” he said during yesterday’s pre-match press conference.

“It’s also a matter of what we can do, how we can pull them apart, how we can get behind them. We want to pull them out of position and be able to take advantage of some of the spaces that open up,” Berhalter continued.

While the buoyant visitors are expected to bring the fight to the Jamaicans and are likely to have majority of the ball, the Jamaica head coach will be hoping his players can do more with the ball than they have been able to throughout the campaign so far.

Whitmore, a star midfielder for the Reggae Boyz at the 1998 World Cup, could very well give a starting place to either Ravel Morrison or Lamar Walker, to influence more co-ordinated attacks for the Jamaicans. Both midfielders generally possess the ball well, have the ability to create space, and can make defence-splitting passes.

Entering the contest, United States, who have come out on top in the last four meetings between the teams, have history decidedly in their favour.

They have won 10 of the last 13 clashes against the Reggae Boyz dating back to 2011. Over that decade the Jamaicans have won three times — a 2-1 home qualifying win in 2012, a 2-1 success in the semi-finals of the 2015 Gold Cup, and 1-0 result in a 2019 friendly international on US soil.

This evening’s match is to be played 24 years to the day the Reggae Boyz drew 0-0 with Mexico in Kingston to seal qualification to the France ’98 World Cup Finals.

Jamaica’s two previous home games in the Octagonal were played behind closed doors as per Government’s guidelines to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

In September, the Boyz crashed to a humiliating 0-3 loss to Panama. A month later, they put in a vastly improved effort to finish nil-all with Canada.

After extensive lobbying from the Jamaica Football Federation and other stakeholders, the Government gave the green light to allow 5,000 vaccinated fans for today’s clash, even though it’s nowhere near the venue’s 28,000 seating capacity.

Now at the halfway stage of Concacaf final-round World Cup qualifying, the Jamaicans desperately need points if they are to repeat the feat for the 2022 showpiece in Qatar.

United States lead the table with 14 points, while Mexico, who are also on 14 points, occupy second place due to an inferior goal difference. Canada (13 points) are third, followed by Panama (11), Costa Rica (six), Jamaica (six), El Salvador (six) and Honduras (three).

The top three nations in the table will progress automatically to the World Cup Finals, with the fourth-place finisher heading to an intercontinental play-off for one more spot to Qatar.

Squads: Jamaica — Andre Blake, Kemar Lawrence, Damion Lowe, Adrian Mariappa, Oniel Fisher, Anthony Grant, Ravel Morrison, Junior Flemmings, Leon Bailey, Kemar Roofe, Michail Antonio, Dwayne Miller, Jeadine White, Liam Moore, Alvas Powell, Javain Brown, Gregory Leigh, Je-Vaughn Watson, Lamar Walker, Devon Williams, Bobby Reid, Cory Burke, Javon East, Shamar Nicholson.

United States — Zack Steffen, Matt Turner, Sean Johnson, Walter Zimmerman, DeAndre Yedlin, Antonee Robinson, Reggie Cannon, Miles Robinson, Mark McKenzie, Chris Richards, Samuel Vines, Sebastian Lletget, Kellyn Acosta, Cristian Roldan, Jesus Ferreira, Weston McKennie, Timothy Weah, Gianluca Busio, Brenden Aaronson, Joseph Scally, Yunus Musah, Paul Arriola, Christian Pulisic, Ricardo Pepi.

Concacaf World Cup Qualifying

Points Standing

Teams P W D L Gf Ga Gd Pts

USA 7 4 2 1 11 4 7 14

Mexico 7 4 2 1 10 5 5 14

Canada 7 3 4 0 11 4 7 13

Panama 7 3 2 2 9 8 1 11

Costa Rica 7 1 3 3 4 6 -2 6

Jamaica 7 1 3 3 5 9 -4 6

El Salvador 7 1 3 3 3 8 -5 6

Honduras 7 0 3 4 4 13 -9 3