With the Reggae Boyz now in preparation mode for the Concacaf Gold Cup after securing a spot in the final round of Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers, Head Coach Steve McClaren believes the squad is closer to where he wants them to be and is urging them to avoid complacency.

The national senior men’s team is set to leave the island on Friday for California, USA, as they kick off their Gold Cup campaign on Monday.

Jamaica will be looking to make it consecutive wins against Guatemala after registering a comfortable 3-0 win on Tuesday at the National Stadium, thanks to a brace from Warner Brown and a first-half header from Jon Russell.

Since their two defeats to the USA in last November’s Concacaf Nations League quarter-finals, the Boyz have been unbeaten over 90 minutes including solid displays in the Unity Cup against Trinidad and Tobago and Nigeria, recently.

Though pleased with the team’s progress over the past few months, McClaren believes more work needs to be done for them to be regarded as a top team.

“I would say six or seven [on a scale of one to 10] purely because of consistency — we haven’t seen that yet. The key in football is always consistency,” he said.

“Guatemala made some changes, coming from an emotional high, so you could see it affected them and they’ll be raging come Monday and dying to play us again. [But] it’s just the standard that the players have set. That’s what I said, you’ve set that with the work rate, discipline and organisation. That’s a simple recipe for being able to win games.”

Ahead of the Gold Cup where they will also meet top-ranked Panama and Guadelope, McClaren believes it will be a good platform for the team to prepare for the final round of World Cup qualifying.

“The goal is the World Cup and this is part of it, to finish top and get into pot one so that’s been achieved. Now we build in the Gold Cup,” he said.

“We’ve tried different things in the Unity Cup, we tried different things here. It was good to see the players who came into the squad from the Unity Cup picked up on what we were trying to do and the intensity and sheer work rate of all the players is key. You cannot win modern day football without 11 players, all organised, disciplined and working damn hard.”

While admitting it will be tough to make major changes to the lineup going forward, McClaren says no player’s spot is safe due to the quality available to him.

“We’re building a squad where everybody else on the bench fits into what we’re trying to do on the field. We have Tyreece Campbell, we’ve got Kaheim Dixon, we’ve got [Rumarn] Burrell, Warner, Romario [Williams] and our midfield,” he said.

“There’s competition for places and I think that was the message that nobody comes here and should expect to play automatically, they have to earn the right and now they’ve earned the right to play — now they’ve got to earn the right to stay in that shirt because the competition behind them is very good,” McClaren added.

On Thursday, Jamaica will find out their three opponents in the final qualifying round for a spot at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

They will be in pot 1 for the group draw which means they will avoid top-ranked Panama and Costa Rica.

Their potential opponents include Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti, Curacao, Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Suriname and Bermuda. The 12 remaining teams will be placed in three groups of four team, with the group winners advancing to next year’s tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Jamaica’s players celebrate scoring against Guatemala during the Concacaf World Cup Qualifier at the National Stadium on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)