It certainly wasn't pretty, but the US men's national team gutted out a 1-0 victory over win over Jamaica to set up a Gold Cup semifinal date with Qatar.
The Reggae Boyz made things very difficult from the onset with their antagonistic field-wide pressure, and it took a good while for the US to come into the game. Were it not for some comical finishing attempts when Jamaica found themselves in great firing positions, things could have turned out quite differently. Unbowed by the adversity, the USMNT kept battling in defense and plugging away in attack until Matthew Hoppe delivered the late winner with his first international goal.
United States Men's National Team Player Ratings
While most of his five saves were easy pickings, Turner's denial of a swerving Junior Flemming drive on 39 minutes was huge. The New England Revolution netminder also came up with a couple of strong cross claims.
Robinson's grade would have been near Man of the Match level were it not for one bad giveaway and a late lost free-kick mark. Other than that, the Atlanta United man coolly worked the team out of numerous pickles.
Jamaica's aggressive stance effectively curtailed the New York City FC youngster's distribution game for most of the night. Sands was also less than clean defensively, but he still came up with a handful of important interventions of varying types.
Though his night's work was a bit of a mixed bag, Moore's push up the flank was consistently helpful. He mishit two of his three best crossing chances, but the good one was extremely dangerous. At the back, the Tenerife right back made a couple of big clearances and executed a couple of steely offside line holds.
One of the team's generally reliable cogs put in a shift he'd probably rather forget. Lletget repeatedly misplayed build passes and it was often too easy for Jamaica to work through his zone in transition.
Like many of his teammates, Acosta struggled in the passing game. Fortunately, he killed it defensively like he's never done playing the No. 6 in a US shirt before. His positioning alone killed several rushes, and he stepped into at least as many fine tackles to relieve pressure.
Like Acosta, the Sporting KC midfielder showed a whole side of his defensive game at this level. Busio picked numerous pockets, and often when theft was needed most. He's had better games on the ball, but still had a few decent moments in transition and often settled things down with Jamaica putting heat on as the US tried to work out of the back.
For the most part, Arriola was oddly quiet over his 63 minutes. Still, the D.C. United winger pitched in with an ace knockdown in Jamaica's box and a strong recovery help play in the US area.
It was an off night for the Orlando City striker, to put it mildly. Dike's hold-up play was non-existent and he fanned on one of the few prime chances the US carved out in the first half. On the lonely plus side, he did flick on well to create a Hoppe shooting chance.
For about an hour, Hoppe was easily the most threatening US player. The Schalke forward did commit a couple of poor turnovers trying to break Jamaica's pressure (Turner's biggest save came after one of them), but he atoned for those mistakes by nodding home the late winner.
I've kind of gone easy on the boss because injuries forced him to reconstruct this game plan. That said, it took a little too long for Berhalter to alter the course of the game with his first subs, and to swap in fresh legs with his second set of changes. Even with these demerits, there's no escaping the fact that this team – and Acosta, Busio, Hoppe and Robinson in particular – effectively went to war for the manager tonight. Good teams win when things don't go to plan, and this result definitely falls under that category.
Substitutes
Though he started his sub shift poorly with some unusually weak build passes, Roldan definitely finished strong. His tempting cross found a taker in Hoppe on the winner, and if that wasn't enough, the Seattle mainstay boldly threw his face (!) in front of a long-range Kemar Lawrence rocket shortly thereafter.
The Columbus strike ace tested Andre Blake almost immediately after coming on in the 63rd minute. And as usual, he found time to make an important restart clearance at the other end.
The right back sub came up with one big steal during his short cameo.
The Caen forward helped stretch Jamaica out as the US killed off the game.
