The Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino This Thursday he achieved his first victory in an official match as coach of USA by beating Jamaica 0-1 in the first leg of the quarterfinals of the League of Nations of Concacaf. A goal from Ricardo Pepi in the 5th minute was enough for the US to take the victory at the National Stadium Independence Park in Kingston.
The second leg will be played this Monday at Energizer Park in St. Louis (Missouri, USA). The USA has won the trophy in the three editions that have been held so far of the Concacaf Nations League. Although this was Pochettino’s first official match, the coach already made his debut on the US bench with two friendlies in October: they beat Panama 2-0 and lost to Mexico by the same result.
Yunus Musah tried it without luck against Jamaica
The winning goal tonight for the Stars and Stripes team came thanks to a good filtered pass from Christian Pulisic, who found Pepi who sent the ball into the net with a tight cross shot. Another of the names of the match for the USA was goalkeeper Matt Turner, who saved a penalty in the first half to maintain the 0-1 lead for his team.
The worst news was the injury of Johnny Cardoso, since the Betis player, who started tonight with the USA, had to leave the field in the 21st minute and leave his place to Malik Tillman. Jamaica ended up with ten players when Mason Holgate was sent off in the 86th minute.
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Pochettino was announced on September 10 as coach, replacing Gregg Berhalter and will lead the North American team towards the key event in 2026, when the USA organizes the World Cup together with Mexico and Canada.
