Ricardo Pepi scored from Christian Pulisic‘s pass in the fifth minute, Matt Turner saved a penalty kick and the United States beat Jamaica 1-0 on Thursday night at Kingston in a CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal first leg, the Americans’ first competitive match under coach Mauricio Pochettino.
The second leg of the total-goals series is Monday in St. Louis, and the winner advances to a March 20 semifinal at Inglewood, California. The United States won the first three editions of the tournament.
Jamaica finished a man short after Mason Holgate was given his second yellow card for pushing Brandon Vázquez in the 86th, 10 minutes after his first for kicking Gianluca Busio.
Pulisic sparked the goal when he received a pass from Johnny Cardoso and dribbled up the center of the field. Pepi burst past Amari’i Bell, ran onto the ball and took a touch, then mis-hit his shot but put the ball in off goalkeeper Andre Blake’s far post for his 12th goal in 32 international appearances.
Pulisic became the 33rd player to make 75 U.S. appearances. Pepi is the fourth American to score 12 international goals before age 22 after Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Pulisic.
Joe Scally’s giveaway led to Jamaica being awarded a penalty kick by Costa Rican referee Juan Gabriel Calderon. Kasey Palmer passed to Shamar Nicholson, who spun around Mark McKenzie and was pulled down by Turner. The goalkeeper dived to his right to bat away Demarai Gray’s 14th-minute spot kick, Turner’s third save in eight penalty kicks while in the U.S. goal.
Malik Tillman replaced an injured Cardoso in the 20th minute.
Pochettino took over the U.S. after Gregg Berhalter was fired for a first-round Copa America exit and started with a pair of friendlies last month.
Pochettino made six changes to the starting lineup from last month’s 2-0 loss at Mexico, inserting McKenzie and midfielders Weston McKennie, Tanner Tessmann and Cardoso along with Pulsiic and Pepi.
McKennie got a yellow card in the 50th minute for pulling down Leon Bailey from behind by the jersey. Antonee Robinson and Bailey received yellow cards in the 69th after teams got into a shoving confrontation.
Aidan Morris will miss both matches after spraining his right knee in training. Brenden Aaronson had flu-like symptoms and skipped the trip, instead traveling to Missouri ahead of the second leg.
Tim Weah served the second match of his two-game suspension for a red card in the Copa America for punching Panama’s Roderick Miller.
Jamaica forward Michail Antonio was suspended for yellow card accumulation. The Reggae Boyz are led by former England manager Steve McClaren, hired after they went 0-3 at the Copa America.
