Haji Wright’s March international window was originally supposed to take place with the American forward receiving a slight break from action, but instead its featured Wright excelling for the U.S. men’s national team.
Wright came off the bench on Thursday and registered two extra time goals in the Americans’ 3-1 CONCACAF Nations League semifinal win over Jamaica. The in-form Coventry City striker scored the winning goal for Gregg Berhalter’s squad before adding an insurance tally only 13 minutes later.
After watching the USMNT concede the opening goal after 42 seconds, Wright was able to work his way onto the field and have a say in the final score.
“It was a difficult day for us,” Wright said postmatch to reporters. “We didn’t start well, obviously when then scored 1-0 in the first minute of the game. It was kind of hard to get into the game, they were in a low block and we were just trying to break them down the whole game.
“They did well for most of the game, but fortunately for us we got a goal in the 90th minute and once we scored we knew we were just going to keep going and destroy them really because they had nothing left in the tank,” he added. “We applied the pressure and were able to score two more goals.”
Wright’s 2024 has been filled with plenty of positive moments and Thursday’s performance will certainly go down as one of them. After scoring the winning goal for Coventry City in last week’s FA Cup quarterfinal triumph over English Premier League side Wolves, Wright now has his first two USMNT goals under his belt since the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
He originally wasn’t chosen in Berhalter’s 23-player roster, but Josh Sargent’s recent injury forced the USMNT head coach to make a switch. Wright, who was set for a short family vacation in Dubai with his girlfriend this month, changed his plans and now the USMNT is reaping the rewards of having him in the squad.
“He actually got Coach’s Man of the Match, and for good reason,” Berhalter said. “You have to shake off the disappointment of not getting selected in the first place and then you come into the group and it’s always a tough feeling because you feel like you’re second choice. When I called him and told him he wasn’t in the team, the message was, ‘You’re doing everything right, you can’t do anything more so just be patient’. I told him that this camp, we opted for this but when we called him to come in, and I’ll share this with you, he was getting on a plane to go to Dubai. He had a family vacation planned for the international break.
“So I call him and he was like, ‘Well, I’m at the airport and my whole family’s here, my agent’s already there, my girlfriend, she planned the whole thing’. This really happened! What do you do, right? I said, ‘Haji, I’m going to give you 10 minutes’, I didn’t give him a timer but I said, ‘Let’s hang up and you just think about it, process it. I know it’s a lot of information right now for you to handle and I know you have your parents, the bags are packed, and you’re at the airport, but just think about it for 10 minutes and give me a call back’.
“He called me back and he said, ‘I’m in’, and, when I heard that, it really shows what type of guy he is and what his character is,” Berhalter added.
Wright’s impactful substitute showing, along with Gio Reyna’s, will certainly give Berhalter more to think about heading into Sunday’s Nations League Final vs. Mexico. Both players gave the USMNT a necessary spark at AT&T Stadium on Thursday night and will be fighting to be part of the starting lineup on Sunday.
It remains to be seen how Berhalter will shuffle his squad against El Tri, but Wright’s brimming confidence could be vital in whether or not the Americans lift a title for third-straight edition.
This website aggregates and curates news articles, blog posts, and other content from a variety of external sources. While we aim to link back to the original source, this site does not own or claim ownership of any articles, posts, or other content indexed on this site. The views, opinions, and factual statements expressed in each piece of aggregated content belong solely to its respective author and publisher. We make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of aggregated content. Visitors are advised to verify facts and claims through the original source before reuse or redistribution.
