US coach Berhalter wary of depleted Jamaica in friendly
Dallas:unitedstatescoachgreggberhalterwarned his team against complacency on Wednesday as they prepare to face a depleted Jamaica in the CONCACAF Nations League semi-finals.
The reigning Nations League champions take on Jamaica in Arlington, Texas, on Friday looking to set up a final showdown against either Mexico or Panama, who meet in the other semi-final.
In theory, the US task has become easier by the absence of several key Jamaican players from Friday’s game.
Jamaica’s veteran West Ham striker Michail Antonio became the latest to join the missing list on Thursday ater sustaining a shoulder knock in the English Premier League on Sunday.
The Reggae Boyz were already without another Premier League player, Aston Villa’s Leon Bailey, who was ditched from the squad last week ater breaking the team’s curfew during the last Jamaica training camp.
While Antonio and Bailey’s absence deprives Jamaica of proven goalscorers, Berhalter says the US won’t take anything for granted, noting that their replacements will be aiming to impress ahead of this summer’s Copa America.
“It puts us on high alert, no question about it,” Berhaltersaidwhenaskedaboutjamaica’sabsentees.
“We’re not taking this team lightly and now with guysmissingit’sevenmoreserious,becauseweknow that the guys that are geting their opportunity tomorrow night are going to be giving everything to show this coach they want to be part of their squad for the Copa America. “So it’s a dangerous game for us and we’re going to be really focused on trying to play a good game and geting to the final.”
Berhalter said the US squad had benefited from input from American players based overseas who were familiar with the Jamaica line-up.
“We went through their roster today and were asking our players what they know personally about the Jamaican players, because a lot of them play with these players in England,” Berhalter said.
“They’re well known to our player pool. We think that the quality they have is still good.
“They might be missing their top talent but they still have enough to be a very competitive team. And we know in these events in CONCACAF, when teams play each other, they’re very difficult games. We expect the same thing.”
Jamaica advanced to the last four of the nations League ater upseting World Cup qualifiers Canada in the quarter-finals when a late penalty capped a remarkable three-goal comeback. Berhalter is expecting a similarly dogged performance from Jamaica on Thursday.