May 22 – June 2025 is set to be a huge month for both Jamaican men’s football and the country’s head coach Steve McLaren, who is nearing one year in charge of the national team.
The Caribbean Island nation endured a disappointing 2024-25 Concacaf Nations League campaign – missing out on the final four – but are in a strong position following their opening two 2026 World Cup qualifying matches.
They boast six points out of a possible six in Group E, with the top two in the standings progressing to the second qualifying stage.
Jamaica are currently in a battle for supremacy with Guatemala after both teams won their opening two matches – a June 10 meeting in Jamaica firmly in the mind.
Six days later on June 16 they will meet again, this time in the group stage of the 2025 Gold Cup, opening their campaign at the Dignity Health Park in Los Angeles.
Prior to the Gold Cup, head coach McLaren attended the competition’s media day to discuss his key players, his tactical approach and his hopes for the tournament.
Jamaica is another team that has been knocking on the door with two Gold Cup final appearances. What is your current evaluation of your team, and how do you like your chances for this upcoming Gold Cup?
It’s a pleasure to be here and a pleasure to take part in this wonderful tournament. I can’t wait. I’ve competed in the European Championships, and this is really exciting for me and will be a great experience. Jamaica have a good record over the years in this competition, and we want to expand on that and try to go all the way.
How do you value playing against Guatemala in both the Gold Cup and World Cup qualifiers?
It will be strange playing Guatemala in the World Cup qualifier and then six days later playing them again in the Gold Cup, but they’ll be two completely different venues, two completely different games. Although the World Cup qualifier is very important to us, the first Gold Cup game will be just as important.
Can you talk about balancing World Cup qualification with the Gold Cup? Is the plan to keep everyone together? Also, the provisional roster came out yesterday with Michail Antonio on it. How feasible is it that he might have recovered from his injuries suffered in that horrible incident to be with you guys this summer?
Yeah, it’s unbelievable and shows the mentality of Michail that he has an accident in which he was lucky to survive. I’ve kept in touch since, and I can’t believe it. I think in February or March, I was speaking to him, and he said, “Pencil me in for the Unity Cup,” which we’ve got next week in the UK.
And he said, “Definitely pencil me in for the World Cup qualifiers and the Gold Cup.” I said, “You’ve got to be joking,” but I spoke to him last week, and I think he’s hoping to be on the bench for West Ham’s last game, which will really be an unbelievably emotional day for Michail.
I hope he makes that and hope he gets fit. We want him with us, not just for his playing potential, but also as a leader of the team. He’s so vital. That’s what we’ve missed in the games since. That’s so apparent. People will have to step forward, but we’re hoping Michail can take some part in the World Cup qualifiers and Gold Cup.
Have you been surprised by the strength of Concacaf?
It’s been a wonderful experience competing in Concacaf. One thing I have learned is there is no easy game in football, no easy game in the Caribbean. They’re all very tough. St. Vincent gave us very difficult games in both matches. So whoever we play, it’s going to be very tough, especially in this tournament because it’s the best teams from three regions coming together in the US.
The teams here deserve to be here, and you’ve got to respect the likes of Guatemala in terms of who they beat to get through. Guyana, Panama beat Costa Rica – a good tea -—and Guadeloupe beat Nicaragua, who also gave us a very tough game.
So, yeah, one game at a time. The first game’s important – you’ve got to get points on the board. It’s a tough group. When I look at the 16 teams competing in the four groups, not one of them was easy. But you have to play who you have to play, and we respect the opponents, but we have to play to our strengths.
What are your considerations regarding Panama as a national team? And how do you feel so far with the process that you are in charge of in Jamaica and the commitment of all the eligible players?
I have great respect for Panama. They play really well. I was very impressed – possession-based, keep the ball very well, create good systems with good principles. I admire what the coach has done since coming in in 2020, and he’s certainly got a very good team with good players. It won’t be an easy game. None of them will be, but we certainly respect Panama, and I’m really looking forward to that game.
Regarding our progress since I’ve been here, we’ve had about five camps, and we’re just trying to change a little bit, tweak a little bit here and there, and make sure that we can progress our game into a more possession-based style, which has been difficult. We’ve had hiccups along the way and some good results, but there’s still a long way to go.
The consistency of player availability hasn’t quite been there. We’ve not really nailed down a consistent squad of 15 or 16 players that we can name automatically. We’ve had quite a few injuries, as we know about Michail Antonio and Deshawn Bernard. We’ve had injuries throughout which have denied us our best players. What I want to see is that coming together, especially for the World Cup qualifiers and Gold Cup. And hopefully, if we qualify for the next round of the World Cup, we need to have a strong selection.
With the World Cup qualifying round on the horizon, how important will this Gold Cup be for Jamaica for continuity going into those windows? And how important is it to find that right balance between working on things and trying to get the team to play more in your way?
Yeah, it’s difficult – a manager’s dilemma. Unfortunately, every head coach will have that problem and that dilemma when coming in. But certainly, with the quality of players that we’ve got, we respect what Heimir [Hallgrímsson] did with the group previously. He got them a real solid base, and we’re trying to build on that solid base, play to our strengths, and have a set way of playing.
That’s coming. We had the first two camps with a consistent way. We experimented a little with the US and against St. Vincent, but we’re more back to our normal principles and ways of playing now. We hope to get better at that and expand on that and become a stronger group, have that solid foundation, but also have that little bit of attacking flair and variety.
You’re quite right that results are the most important thing, and how you get them. We have to be a team that, whether you’re playing against Panama, Guatemala, or whoever, you know you have to fight. We had to do that even against St. Vincent. So that’s the number one thing – you have to fight. You have to be together, and then the football comes from that, and we have talented football players.
They must play as a team. They must run, they must fight. Football is changing, and you can see the smaller teams proving to be very difficult opponents. Every nation throughout the world – I’ve seen that in Europe, and I’ve experienced it in Concacaf – that there are no easy games. Smaller teams are getting stronger and more difficult to beat, so every game is tough.
I know you obviously want to win the Gold Cup, but are you hoping to use that time as an opportunity to get those players in and get your style in, so when the September World Cup qualifying comes, they’ll be able to adjust better instead of calling them up for one week where you’ve only seen them for maybe two or three training sessions?
From the outset, the number one thing that we put up every time we meet is World Cup qualification. That’s the goal. Between then and now, since we came in last August-September, there are little milestones that we have to achieve. And this is just part of those milestones.
We wanted to top the group in the Nations League – we did that. We wanted to make sure we qualified for the semi-finals of the Nations League – we couldn’t quite do it against the US. We wanted to qualify most definitely for the Gold Cup – St. Vincent was very important to make sure we qualified for that.
So we’ve made little increments along the way, steps along the way. Those little steps, and sometimes big steps, are for the one goal: World Cup qualification. That’s ultimately why I’m here. That’s why the players travel around the world, sometimes taking 26 hours to come and play for Jamaica – the commitment has to be there to do that.
We’ve certainly got that commitment, and we’re building and growing and reaching milestones. We’ve got the Unity Cup where we’re going to experiment with a squad in the UK. We’ve got World Cup qualifiers, which are very serious to us, so we need a strong squad. And we’re going to this Gold Cup – this is for me a great experience, but also for the players, and they’ve had more experience than I have.
So I’m really looking forward to this tournament. It’s a new one for me. The players will have to teach me what’s going on! But everything is geared towards having the squad, and that’s why we’re looking at some players in the Unity Cup. We’re still trying to get passports for other players as well to make sure that we have the best players available, because you need the best players to be able to qualify.
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