PITTSBURGH (June 19, 2023) — Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC goalkeeper Jahmali Waite was confirmed this afternoon as one of the 23 players who will represent Jamaica at this summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup being played across the United States.
It will be the first major international tournament for Waite, 24, who earlier this year logged his first competitive match for the Reggae Boyz by starting a Concacaf Nations League match at Mexico on March 26. Waite has made four total appearances for Jamaica, including one last week in a pre-tournament friendly against Qatar played in Austria.
Waite and his teammates face a challenging first match in Group A against the United States at Soldier Field in Chicago on June 24 at 9 p.m. in the tournament’s opening game. In a Caribbean-heavy group, Jamaica also will face Trinidad and Tobago in St. Louis on June 28, and they will finish group play on July 2 in Santa Clara, Calif. against the winner of the final preliminary qualifier to be played tomorrow between St. Kitts & Nevis and French Guiana. The top two teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals.
Waite is one of three goalkeepers on the Jamaican roster, along with longtime Reggae Boyz starter Andre Blake of the Philadelphia Union in MLS and 20-year-old Coniah Boyce-Clarke of Reading in England’s League One. Also among his teammates for the tournament are five current Premier League players — Michail Antonio (West Ham), Leon Bailey (Aston Villa), Demarai Gray (Everton), Ethan Pinnock (Brentford) and Bobby Reid (Fulham) — and a fellow USL Championship player in Phoenix Rising’s Kevon Lambert.