Pepi lifts USMNT past Jamaica in 1st leg of Nations League quarters

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 in Kingston in a CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal first leg, the Americans’ first competitive match under coach Mauricio Pochettino.

The second leg of the 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.

"We were here to fight. We knew it was going to be difficult," Pepi said. "At the end of the day we got the result and now it's time to go and take care of it at home."

Jamaica finished a man short after Mason Holgate was given his second yellow card for pushing Brandon Vazquez in the 86th minute, 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 mishit his shot but put the ball in off goalkeeper Andre Blake's far post for his 12th goal in 32 international appearances.

"I just saw Christian between the lines and I thought I had space in behind, so made a run," Pepi said after his third goal against Jamaica.

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 Pulsic and Pepi.

McKennie got a yellow card in the 50th minute for pulling down Leon Bailey from behind. Antonee Robinson and Bailey received yellow cards in the 69th after the teams got into a shoving confrontation.

Aidan Morris is out of the two-game series 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.

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