Steve McClaren has said the reason he left Manchester United was for the kind of winner-takes-all opportunity he now faces with Jamaica in their bid to reach the World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n
Jamaica are on the brink of qualifying for the tournament next summer, but must beat Curacao in Kingston on Tuesday to finish top of their qualifying group.<\/p>\n
If the match finishes in a draw, Curacao would qualify, becoming the smallest nation in World Cup history to reach the finals. In that scenario, Jamaica might have a second chance via the intercontinental play-offs in Mexico in March.<\/p>\n
McClaren, 64, took charge of Jamaica in July 2024, giving up his role as assistant at United under Erik ten Hag.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why I took the job in the first place and left Manchester United to come here,\u201d McClaren said at his pre-match press conference at the National Stadium. \u201cI knew Jamaica from my work with FIFA. I knew the potential, and I knew that this was a great opportunity, this year to qualify for the World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo from day one, for the last 18 months, that\u2019s been the focus. And I remember saying to my staff the first day, and I said it when the group stages were drawn, this will always come to the last day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Curacao, a nation of around 185,000 people, have the chance to eclipse Iceland, who qualified in 2018 with 350,000 residents, as the least-populated country in World Cup history. They have leaned into their Dutch heritage by recruiting several players from the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
McClaren will tap into his experience, having been an assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson for Manchester United\u2019s Treble in 1999 and managed FC Twente to the Dutch title.<\/p>\n
He also has international experience from his time with England, when he went to two World Cups as No 2 to Sven Goran Eriksson but failed to reach Euro 2008 as manager.<\/p>\n
He is up against Dick Advocaat, who has had even longer in the game, having started coaching in 1980. The 78-year-old has managed Curacao since last year, but departed camp on Saturday after his team beat Bermuda 7-0 to attend an important family matter back in the Netherlands. He will stay in touch with his coaches throughout the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe experience (I have) might be quite useful,\u201d said McClaren. \u201cBut Curacao have got exactly the same. They\u2019ve got Dick Advocaat. We must say, he\u2019s had to go back home to, I think, his wife, who has fallen ill, so our prayers and our thoughts are with Dick at this time. But him and his staff, they\u2019re more experienced than me!<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a game of what happens on the field. Picking the right team. It comes down to 11 players versus 11 players, always in the end, and a little bit of luck, and God willing, you get that luck.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re at home in front of our fans, and if you\u2019d have asked me 18 months ago that\u2019s what will happen, I would go, \u2018Oh, can we jump to that quickly?\u2019. Because the 18 months have been really hard. But all that hard work has been worth it to get to this point, and an opportunity. That\u2019s all it is, an opportunity to qualify. We must take it, grab it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was put to McClaren that his composed demeanour on the touchline during games could be mistaken for complacency.<\/p>\n
He replied: \u201cThis 18 months has been an unbelievable experience. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve gathered all the way through my career \u2013 experiences. Good and bad victories, losses, disappointments. I\u2019ve had ridicule. I wouldn\u2019t ever say complacency. You want to come into our hotel and our meeting rooms, there\u2019s no complacency. We have to be calm, we have to be relaxed, then you make good decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, for me, the goal has always been World Cup qualification, but since coming on the island, I love the people. Every day you wake up and the enthusiasm of the players, whether local players or from the UK, to push the energy has been brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve McClaren has said the reason he left Manchester United was for the kind of winner-takes-all opportunity he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,157951,4884,55985,47356,2465,98,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-577026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-international-football","13":"tag-jamaica","14":"tag-manchester","15":"tag-manchester-united","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115567358560821790","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}