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ARLINGTON, Texas — The U.S. men’s national team arrived in Texas with plenty of optimism ahead of their Concacaf Nations League semifinal against Jamaica. Head coach Gregg Berhalter boasted that the player pool was so deep that he had to make tough choices with his roster selection, and high-profile players like Christian Pulisic were in stellar form for their clubs coming into the match.
Before the first minute of play was over at AT&T Stadium on Thursday, though, that positivity felt like a distant memory.
Jamaica’s Greg Leigh scored in the first minute, making the next 90-plus feel like an exercise in potential that was not going to be realized as the USMNT wasted shot after shot while holding more than 80% of the ball. Things finally turned their way in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time when Cory Burke scored an own goal that forced the game to extra time, and then a pair of unlikely heroes stepped up — substitutes Gio Reyna and Haji Wright.
Reyna assisted both of Wright’s goals in extra time, allowing the USMNT to cruise through the last 30 minutes of the game. For the former, some might argue the moment was a long time coming — he has been regarded as one of the top prospects in the player pool but has struggled for playing time at his new club, Nottingham Forest. The lack of fitness did not matter for Berhalter.
“He showed why he got called into camp,” Berhalter said after the match. “Amazing quality, amazing talent and for us, it’s about supporting him through the difficult times of adapting to the Premier League, but his quality is unquestionable. When you see the plays he made on both the second and third ball, but I think most importantly, the ball he wins and makes the pass, he has that quality that not many players have and it’s clear that he deserves to play.”
Reyna seemed to perfectly execute the role of a substitute, coming on at halftime and emerging as…
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