Colorado Springs Switchbacks midfielder Tyreek Magee could be set for his first appearance for the Reggae Boyz since November 2023 as he selected in the squad for the upcoming CONCACAF Nations League fixtures against Nicaragua away and Honduras at home on October 10 and 14, respectively.

The 25-year-old former Jamaica College star has scored three goals in 13 appearances so far this season for the Switchbacks in the USL Championship and is in the Reggae Boyz squad for the first time since the first leg of the 2023 CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal against Canada which the Reggae Boyz lost 2-1.

He has made 10 appearances for the Reggae Boyz since his debut in 2019.

“I’ve always looked for a number 10, creative player out of the box, somebody who can change games and I asked Merron (Gordon) and he recommended Tyreek (Magee),” Reggae Boyz head coach Steve McLaren said at the squad announcement press conference held at the JFF headquarters in Kingston on Friday.

“I had a little loom at him and I liked him. This boy has ability, skill, can change a game and I said yeah, we’ll give him a chance. That’s what I aim to do,” he added.

Also returning to the Reggae Boyz squad for the upcoming games are New York City FC right back Tayvon Gray, Seattle Sounders defender Jon Bell and Indy Eleven forward Romario Williams.

Former England Under-21 defender Mason Holgate is a newcomer to the squad, though his participation in the games is yet to be determined.

“We’ve been chasing him since before I came in. I think, through the intervention of the President especially, trying to push through players with heritage wanting passports, I think we’re finally very, very close to getting a passport for him. He just needs clearance from FIFA,” McLaren said.

“He might not qualify for the first gams but we think by the second game he will definitely be available so I decided to bring him in and integrate him quickly,” he added.

Aston Villa’s Leon Bailey misses out on a place in the squad after picking up an adductor injury against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday.

Spartak Moscow striker Shamar Nicholson has also been left out after telling coach McLaren he wasn’t happy with his fitness.

“After the last camp, we had some discussions. He never felt happy about his form and his condition,” McLaren said regarding Nicholson.

“He expressed that he felt he was way behind in terms of not having a pre-season and he wants to build his fitness up,” he added.

Others from the last camp that were left out included Michael Hector, Jamal Lowe, Adrian Reid Jr and Jonathan Russell.

The full squad is as follows:

Goalkeepers: Andre Blake (Philadelphia Union), Shaquan Davis (Mount Pleasant FA), Jahmali Waite (El Paso Locomotive)

Defenders: Dexter Lembikisa (Yverdon-Sport), Di’Shon Bernard (Sheffield Wednesday), Greg Leigh (Oxford United), Damion Lowe (Al-Okhdood), Jon Bell (Seattle Sounders), Richard King (Cavalier SC), Tayvon Gray (NYCFC), Ethan Pinnock (Brentford), Mason Holgate (West Brom)

Midfielders: Kasey Palmer (Hull City), Karoy Anderson (Charlton Athletic), Bobby Reid (Leicester City), Joel Latibeaudiere (Coventry City), Tyreek Magee (Colorado Springs Switchbacks)

Forwards: Renaldo Cephas (Ankaragucu), Norman Campbell (Randers FC), Michail Antonio (West Ham), Demarai Gray (Al-Ettifaq), Kaheim Dixon (Charlton Athletic), Romario Williams (Indy Eleven)

Nick Cushing believes his New York City FC side are in a good place as they seek to improve their form on the road against Chicago Fire this weekend.

NYCFC are winless in their last three games away from home, with their latest defeat coming against Austin FC last time out as Gyasi Zardes’ double cancelled out Andres Perea's early strike.

The result leaves them in fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings, a point behind rivals New York Red Bulls ahead of the upcoming Leagues Cup break.

Despite their recent loss, Cushing’s side have impressed on home turf and is happy with the moment his players find themselves at an important stage of the season.

“I think the upcoming games are important because I think everybody in the league sees the League Cup break as a natural marker in the season,” Cushing said. “You then focus on the Leagues Cup, and then you've got the run in through until the end of the season.

“I think the only way that we have to approach it is to improve the performances from the previous games. The Austin game was vastly improved compared to the Nashville and the LA Galaxy game.

“We dominate the game, we control the game, we showed a real maturity in when to have the ball and when to go out and counterattack. We created many chances, but we just fell on the wrong side of the result.

“We have to take the positives out of the performance and we have to improve in the areas where we don't get the result and ultimately that is executing in the final third. We missed chances that we created and we gave two moments that in this league you will be punished for.

“We have to fix that fast. Whether it is understanding whether it is mentality, I think this group is in a good place."

Chicago Fire, meanwhile, suffered a third defeat in four games at the hands of San Jose Earthquakes, leaving them precariously close to the bottom of the Eastern Conference table.

Just four points separate seven teams at the wrong end of the standings, with the Fire guilty of squandering several opportunities to put important points on the board.

It was the seventh time this season that Chicago have failed to score in a game. No team has failed to do so more often in the MLS this season.

Head coach Frank Klopas acknowledged his side’s wastefulness in front of goal, insisting his players need to find that clinical edge moving forwards.

“For me, the staff and the players, it felt like a missed opportunity for us to go and pick up points,” Klopas said.

“It was probably not a game that we came out with the highest intensity of energy. I think both teams had a little bit of a slow start. We did create opportunities, but again conceded one goal.

“We created enough to come away with points. It’s disappointing because it was an opportunity with the results around us for us to pick up some important momentum and gain some ground on teams.

“We missed that opportunity. We don’t always make it easy on ourselves when those chances come and we can’t let too many more of those slide away because the season is running out.”

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Chicago Fire – Hugo Cuypers

Hugo Cuypers has scored in each of his last three MLS appearances at Soldier Field and will be brimming with confidence ahead of facing NYCFC.

No Fire player has had a longer single-season home scoring streak since Nemanja Nikolic scored in four straight home matches to end the 2017 campaign.

NYCFC – Tayvon Gray

Tayvon Gray continued his influential displays for NYCFC in the final third, notching his fifth assist of the season in their win over Philadelphia Union.

Only two MLS players have more assists this season without having a secondary assist (San Jose’s Cristian Espinoza — 10, New York Red Bulls’ Dante Vanzeir — six).

MATCH PREDICTION: DRAW

Heading into the encounter at Soldier Field, NYCFC hold the better head-to-head record from their previous meetings with Chicago, having lost just three times in their 20 all-time fixtures (W11, D6), including going unbeaten in their last five encounters (W4, D1).

Chicago, however, will have confidence in front of their home supporters. Of the 15 points they have taken from NYCFC, 13 have come at home (W3, D4, L2).

The Fire have won back-to-back home matches after a six-match winless run at Soldier Field from mid-April to the end of May. Chicago scored six times in their two home wins after scoring only twice in their previous six games at home.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Chicago Fire – 35%

Draw – 26%

NYCFC – 39%

Nick Cushing is looking forward to New York City FC's next home game against San Jose Earthquakes on Friday and asks the fans to "build an atmosphere".

NYCFC are on a four-match winning run and beat derby rivals New York Red Bulls 2-1 in their most recent outing at Citi Field.

That run means they sit in third in the Eastern Conference and are eight points behind leaders Inter Miami.

NYCFC have the opportunity to close the gap to second place with Cincinnati not in action this weekend, and Cushing is hopeful the fans can give the team an added boost as they try to maintain their recent winning streak.

"I love playing in front of our fans," Cushing said.

"I love playing at home. It is the last game before we get a bye week and an international break, and it's Friday night under the lights.

"The Red Bull game was amazing because of the atmosphere, the crowd, the amount of fans we got in, and the way that we played.

"We just want to make sure that we deliver a performance every game that makes people want to come to the stadium. A performance that makes people excited and makes them want to make a noise and build an atmosphere.

"We encourage fans to be super noisy for us because it helps us. We want to keep adding wins. I'm excited, and I want to make sure that we start the game in a way that makes us really work together – ourselves and the fans – and then go and get another win."

San Jose, meanwhile, sit second from bottom of the Western Conference, eight points off a playoff spot.

They have not won any of their last three outings, though their last win did come on the road when they beat Colorado Rapids 3-2 on May 12.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

NYCFC – Tayvon Gray

Gray has recorded the assist on the winning goal in each of NYCFC's last two matches.

It is the first time in his career that he has recorded an assist in consecutive MLS matches as he had recorded just one assist in his previous 33 games dating back to September 2022.

San Jose Earthquakes – Cristian Espinoza

Espinoza recorded his eighth assist of the season in San Jose's draw with Austin on Saturday, setting up a goal for Jeremy Ebobisse.

Ebobisse is the seventh different player Espinoza has recorded an assist for this season – the only player he has set up twice is Amahl Pellegrino.

MATCH PREDICTION: NEW YORK CITY FC WIN

New York City have won five of their six all-time meetings with the Earthquakes (D1), including the last four in a row. NYCFC has scored multiple goals in all five wins, including scoring 10 times in their home matches against the 'Quakes (all wins).

Indeed, NYCFC have won seven of their last eight matches (L1), including the last four in a row, and could equal the longest regular-season winning streak in club history (five straight in 2019).

Meanwhile, San Jose have won only two of their last 48 regular-season road matches against Eastern Conference opposition (D11 L35) dating back to May 2012. The Earthquakes have managed to draw each of their last three road matches against Eastern teams, including a 1-1 draw at Nashville in April.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

NYCFC – 59.5%

Draw – 21.2%

San Jose Earthquakes – 19.3%

Jamaica’s senior Reggae Boyz Head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson says his team will not only draw inspiration from senior Reggae Girlz Fifa Women’s World Cup exploits, but more importantly, build on the positives from their own Gold Cup campaign to achieve future success.

Hallgrimsson’s sentiments came as he named a 23-player squad for the upcoming Concacaf Nations League tournament, where they will be hunting qualification for next year’s 48^th edition of the prestigious Copa America to be staged in the United States.

The Boyz, who will contest League A of the Nations League, are grouped with Suriname, Haiti, Honduras, Cuba and Grenada.

They are scheduled to open their account on home soil against Honduras on September 8, before tackling Caribbean rivals Haiti, four days later. Both games are scheduled for the National Stadium.

Following those games, Hallgrimsson’s side will play away to Grenada on October 12, before visiting Haiti on October 15.

To get to the Copa America, the Jamaicans are required to finish in the top six, as such, they will need to secure one of two spots from their group to progress to quarter-finals.

Should they do so and go on to win their quarter-finals fixture, the Boyz would automatically secure berth to Copa America, however, if not, then they would take the playoff route for a second shot at qualification.

With that in mind, Hallgrimsson, alluded to the Reggae Girlz, who became the first male or female team from the Caribbean to contest the knockout rounds at a World Cup since Cuba’s feat in 1938.

On the way to that accomplishment, the Girlz held top-ranked France and Brazil to goalless stalemates and also secured a first ever World Cup win with a 1-0 scoreline over Panama.

“A lot of positivity surrounds Jamaica’s football at the moment, the Girlz performance should give us energy for our games and we should try to use that to our benefit to go forward. But before I go forward, I want to look back at the Gold Cup, we were very satisfied with that tournament and we got even more positivity from analyzing those games,” Hallgrimsson said during a press conference on Friday.

“We feel that we are getting stronger as a unit and as a team. We had some good performances from players, some were new faces at the tournament with very little preparation period prior and we know those players will grow into the team and play an even bigger role than they did in the Gold Cup. So lot of positives, if we talk tactically, we know we can improve in areas like our attacking game, as well how we possess the ball,” he added.

On that note, Hallgrimsson only made four changes from that Gold Cup squad with Jonathan Russell, Kaheem Parris, Javain Brown and Kemar Lawrence being replaced by Tayvon Gray, Kasey Palmer, Greg Leigh and former Arnett Gardens standout Renaldo Cephas.

The American-born Gray, 21, who currently represents New York City FC, won the MLS Cup in 2021 and Campeones Cup in 2022. The right-back also represented the United States in multiple games at the youth level.

Aware that Jamaica contested the Copa America in 2015 and 2016, the Icelandic coach is hoping to also achieve the feat during his tenure, as he believes playing at that level will be integral to their preparations for a shot at making the 2026 World Cup.

“As I said we were very pleased with the Gold Cup so there are not much new faces for this camp. Time spent together is hugely important to us, so again qualifying for the Copa America will help us even more in preparation for the World Cup,” Hallgrimsson declared.

“Firstly, we want to win and be number one in Nations League. That is one thing, it is just an extra spice that doing well in this competition will give us a chance to play in the Copa America, an even bigger competition than the Gold Cup.

“In the process of growing as a unit, it is really important that we qualify for competitions like this to keep the growth going. So, we are just preparing ourselves playing in big tournaments like this,” he reasoned.

Moving up the Fifa rankings is another component of added significance for Hallgrimsson, who again made note of the Reggae Girlz rise from 43rd to 37th, as well as his team’s own move from 66th to 58th.

“Fifa ranking means a lot in national team football today. For example, in the Nations League the top four ranked teams United States, Canada, Mexico and Panama, don’t need to play in the group stage, they automatically qualify for the quarter-finals and that is a huge benefit for them.

“So we want to be in that position to not need to play a whole group stage to be able to play for top four. We want to be top four in the ranking and I would say if we get to 40, it would be a huge success for us,” Hallgrimsson noted.

Squad: Goalkeepers –Andre Blake, Jahmali Waite, Conniah Boyce-Clarke

Defenders –Damion Lowe, Tayvon Gray, Ethan Pinnock, Amari’i Bell, Di’Shon Bernard, Dexter Lembikisa, Adrian Mariappa, Greg Leigh

Midfielders –Kasey Palmer, Joel Latibeaudiere, Daniel Johnson, Kevon Lambert, Bobby Reid

Forwards –Leon Bailey, Michail Antonio, Demarai Gray, Dejuan Richards, Cory Burke, Shamar Nicholson, Renaldo Cephas