The Final Four field for the 2023-24 CONCACAF Nations League semifinals is set.
The U.S. men’s national team will face Jamaica in March’s semifinal round while Mexico and Panama will square off on the other side of the tournament bracket. All four teams have also reached the 2024 Copa America after advancing to the Nations League semifinals this week.
Gregg Berhalter’s side advanced past Trinidad & Tobago 4-2 on aggregate despite losing Monday’s second leg 2-1 in Port of Spain. Ricardo Pepi, Antonee Robinson, and Gio Reyna all scored in a 3-0 first leg victory in Austin, Texas before the Americans struggled in a 2-1 loss this week.
Robinson scored the lone goal in the defeat while Sergino Dest was sent off before halftime.
Jamaica advanced past Canada on the away goal tiebreaker after the two sides were level 4-4 on aggregate. The Reggae Boyz used a brace from Shamar Nicholson on Tuesday night, as well as a late penalty kick goal from Bobby Reid to earn a 3-2 result in Toronto.
The USMNT has only lost three of its 32 all-time meetings with Jamaica, with one coming in the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup and one coming in 2012 World Cup Qualifying.
Mexico and Panama will square off in the second semifinal of the Final Four. El Tri headed into Tuesday’s second leg with Honduras down 2-0 on aggregate but used goals from Luis Chavez and Edson Alvarez to force a penalty shootout.
Luis Malagon made one key save in the shootout before Andy Najar missed his spot kick attempt to seal Mexico’s advancement.
Panama breezed past Costa Rica 6-1 on aggregate after a 3-0 first leg road triumph and a 3-1 second leg victory at home. Jose Fajardo scored twice while Adalberto Carrasquilla registered two assists over the matches.
Mexico is 25-12-5 all-time against Panama, riding a 14-match unbeaten streak across all competitions.
AT&T Stadium in Texas will play host to the semifinal and final in late-March.
It will be interesting if Demarai Gray returns for NL semis. He hasn’t played with Jamaica since GC and his move to Saudi Arabia shortly after. I thought he was the best of the England crew this summer.
Oops apparently he played the 2nd leg against Canada but got red carded so US doesn’t have to worry about him in the semi.
i’ll be curious if hot mess canada and their new coach can beat TnT. we’re playing jamaica because they lost this round on kicks. canada is regressing, financial problems or whatever. i do think it helps canada it’s a single neutral site game and not home and away.
panama’s run of games looks excellent. i thought they outcoached the B team this summer.
mexico also has decent form and it looked to me like they rotated half the team after honduras away.
Canada is a mess but in a one off against Trinidad at Jerry World they should be fine. Jamaica has mostly EPL and Championship players with a couple MLS vets sprinkled in.
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As for El Tri they were pretty poor this window, they changed out 3 from match 1 to 2 and it didn’t help a lot. First goal was off a free kick and 2nd needed 11:30 of added time. With all the “upgrades” to Azteca it’s not nearly the advantage anymore either.
CONCACAF’s finest. The Salvadorean ref of the Mexico – Honduras game
Honduras got CONCACAF’ed!
our region is pathetic
The scrolling ticker as of 830am central time on “Golazo” says the US vs Mexico for 1 semifinal and Panama vs Jamaica for the other.
US Soocer’s website says USA vs Jamaica.
Right on Johnnyr. Either opponent will be a difficult matchup.
concacaf sez US-JAM. resolution.
Money-making supersedes fair competitions for CONCACAF soccer. Mexico has to be in the final four, no matter what. A lesson I learned long ago.
90+11 goal for Mexico??!! Looks like the ref was just going to let them play until they scored…
Exactly, there was some time wasting, but certainly nothing near the 9 posted minutes. Then he extended it another 1:30 after the original 9 before Mexico finally scored.
That Salvadorean ref is corrupt. Follow the money trail.
He let Mexico play for 11 mins when it was supposed to be only 9 mins of injury time. Then, as if that wasn’t apparent enough that he could be bought, during the PKs, he let Chino Huerta take 3 PK attempts until he scored, as first two were saved by the GK.
Ridiculous ref!
Ok the penalties were obvious correct officiating though. Keeper was clearly off his line. It didn’t even need to be checked by VAR.