Several regular players will be missing from the Jamaica Reggae Boyz line-up when they face regional powerhouse the United States, in a friendly international, in Austria, next Thursday.
When the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) released a final 18-man squad on Tuesday, the likes of regular team captain and custodian Andre Blake, defender Damion Lowe, and Bayer Leverkusen winger Leon Bailey were a few missing from the line-up.
At present, some members of the national squad have been locked in tense negotiations with the JFF, and according to reports, have yet to sign contracts ensuring their availability to represent the national team.
The squad will in the meantime see the return of defender Adrian Mariappa (Bristol Rovers), Michael Hector (Fulham) with potential debuts for English-based talents Leon Moore, Ethan Pinnock (Brentford), and Watford striker Andre Gray. Also making a return to the squad will be former Manchester United youth player Ravel Morrison.
The United States have been in top form in recent friendly internationals, handing Trinidad and Tobago a 7-0 thrashing in their previous match Prior to that, they registered a 6-0 win over another CONCACAF team El Salvador and a 6-2 win over Panama.
The match will take place at the Stadion Wiener Neustadt at 12:00pm (Jamaica time).
Full squad
Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard is planning to represent the United States at the rescheduled Olympic Games in Tokyo this year.
Coronavirus forced the 2020 Games to be postponed, with the Olympics now due to be held in Tokyo from July 23 to August 8 this year.
Despite a potentially congested schedule, with the Clippers contenders in the Western Conference and the NBA season set to finish on July 22 if the Finals go the distance, Leonard is ready to play for Team USA.
"My plan is to go," Leonard said on Sunday, ahead of the All-Star Game in Atlanta.
Gregg Popovich's Team USA are set to play their first game against France on July 25.
"If I feel up to it and feel ready to go around that time, then I'm going to play," Leonard said.
Leonard added: "A lot of people were in for 2020, but just the pandemic pretty much killed everything."
Team USA won the Gold Medal in 2016, defeating Serbia at the Rio De Janeiro Games almost five years ago in Brazil.
Jamaica international, Oniel Fisher, has signed with Major League Soccer (MLS) club LA Galaxy as a free agent.
The 29-year-old previously represented Seattle Sounders who he represented from 2015-2017 and later D.C. United, who he also represented for two years, between 2018 to 2020. The experienced defender, who also played for Seattle Sounders 2, has a total of 89 appearances in US football. The player also spent a year playing for the New York Red Bulls U-23.
Fisher retcovered from surgery to a partially torn ACL, MCL, PCL, and medial meniscus, for an injury suffered in 2019, and went on to make 15 appearances for DC United last season. However, the club declined to renew his contract at the end of the 2020 season. te Kloese believes the player will be a welcome addition to the club.
“We are excited to have Oniel join the LA Galaxy,” LA Galaxy general manager Dennis te Kloese said.
“He is a talented defender who can play multiple positions along the backline and brings versatility and MLS experience to our defense. We look forward to him joining our club.”
Fisher has made 15 appearances for the Jamaica national team. He last represented the national team against Saudi Arabia in November of last year.
The United States made history in their 7-0 demolition of Trinidad and Tobago in Sunday's international friendly.
USA scored at least five goals in three consecutive matches for the first time in their history, per Opta.
The United States showed no mercy in the country's first international fixture since crushing El Salvador 6-0 in December amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Gregg Berhalter's USA raced out to a 4-0 lead by half-time at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida.
Looking ahead to a busy 2021 with the inaugural CONCACAF Nations League in June, July's CONCACAF Gold Cup and the start of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, USA only needed two minutes to open the scoring thanks to Jonathan Lewis.
Jesus Ferreira went from provider to scorer as he doubled the lead seven minutes later before Paul Arriola's quick-fire brace put the result beyond doubt at the interval.
Miles Robinson made it 5-0 seven minutes into the second half, while Lewis and Ferreira completed their doubles within seven minutes as the hosts cruised.
Ten different USA players have scored multiple goals in one of the team's last nine matches, including Arriola, Lewis and Ferreira.
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