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Open appOne Love, one club, one World Cup? Andre Blake hoping for 'dream come true' 2026 & beyond
The Jamaica captain speaks about near-misses & March's playoffs
Jon Arnold
Jan 14, 2026
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From the outside looking in, 2025 was a ‘nearly’ year for Andre Blake.
The goalkeeper helped the Philadelphia Union to the Supporters’ Shield with an MLS-low mark of 35 goals conceded as a team in the regular season. But the Union were bumped out of the playoffs in the conference semifinals - and Blake missed a number of matches with injury or international duty.
He backstopped Jamaica in the final round of World Cup qualification, allowing just three goals. But Jamaica fell short of earning an automatic place in the 2026 field.
But Blake doesn’t see it like that, opting to put the near-misses aside and focus on what was achieved. He lifted a trophy. He had a good season. The World Cup dream is still alive.
“In perspective, 2025 was a great year for me,” he told me last week. “For both club and country, there’s definitely been challenging times in 2025. So for me, it’s just important to take whatever I need to take from 25 and just flush whatever I need to flush and understand that it’s 2026.
“It’s a new year, and it’s a new opportunity.”
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After a year in which he fell short of lifting MLS Cup & qualifying for the World Cup, Andre Blake is ready to get back to work and push for those goals. (Photo by Matthew Huang/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The biggest opportunity for Blake is the World Cup. Jamaica will play in the inter-confederation playoff, looking to beat New Caledonia, then DR Congo to return to the Men’s World Cup for the first time since Jamaica’s debut in 1998.
Blake and his teammates may have thought they would be able to get to the tournament in North America without the playoff. Jamaica controlled its destiny heading into the final two matches of qualification, but two points in the last two games saw Curacao leapfrog Jamaica into the automatic qualification place.
“We still have a chance,” Blake said. “Obviously, it’s not going to be easy, but we kind of put ourselves in this position, and we’re going to have to go out there and fight for our lives to get to where we want to be.”
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Had the Reggae Boyz held on to a one-goal edge in their penultimate match of qualification, an away game in Trinidad and Tobago, they would’ve needed only a stalemate on the final day. But a Kevin Molino goal in the 85th minute meant settling for a point in Port of Spain - and ceding the draw scenario to Curacao.
Blake held The Blue Wave at bay in the finale, making four saves. He could do little, however, to help his teammates find a goal that would’ve made the difference.
“It was a devastating moment for me in Kingston. I feel like the entire country was at the game,” Blake said. “The atmosphere was there, the energy was there. The only thing missing from that game was us scoring a goal or two to win the game.”
After the match, Steve McClaren resigned as Jamaica manager. “Once we got back to the locker room, he came in and he just, at that moment, announced that he was going to step away,” Blake recalls.
The Jamaica Football Federation has opted to turn to much more familiar faces. Rudolph Speid, a long-time coach based in Jamaica, is the interim head coach with Miguel Coley and Michael Donaldson named as assistants and Aaron Lawrence, who went to the 1998 World Cup with Jamaica, as goalkeeper coach.