Andre Blake must put the Union’s woes aside to play the biggest games of his life with Jamaica

If you were to make a list of the biggest games of Andre Blake’s career, what would be on it?

With the Union, the 2022 MLS Cup final for sure, and that one might be near the top. Two Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals, two U.S. Open Cup finals, and an Eastern Conference playoff final.

With Jamaica, the 2021 Gold Cup final and the 2024 Nations League final four, when he pushed the Reggae Boyz to the continent’s biggest national team stages.

But none of those games compare to his next one.

On Thursday, Blake will step on the field at Estadio Akron, just outside Guadalajara, Mexico, for FIFA’s World Cup qualifying intercontinental playoffs. Jamaica faces New Caledonia, and the winner plays Bolivia on March 31 for a World Cup spot.

The captain of Jamaica and the Union is in his fourth attempt to make it to the world’s game’s biggest stage. He has never succeeded at it, even if far more often it’s been the fault of his teammates, not him.

By every measure, the job should have been done this time. Jamaica had a win-and-in scenario on home turf in its Concacaf qualifying finale last November, but blew it with a scoreless tie at home against Curaçao. Blake could only watch from his net as a squad of talents proven in England, MLS, and beyond failed to score.

» READ MORE: Union still searching for their first MLS win following narrow loss to the Chicago Fire

And by coincidence, a few weeks later Curaçao was drawn to play in Philadelphia. Imagine the roar Blake would get when announced as Jamaica’s captain in a World Cup game here.

Everyone knows how badly Blake wants to get there, from the Union’s locker room to fans all over the continent. And you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone, no matter their rooting allegiance, who doesn’t want to see the Reggae Boyz back in the World Cup for the first time since 1998.

Blake knows in turn how badly people want it for him specifically. If the soccer gods were swayed by a popular vote, surely the 35-year-old would have won a major trophy by now, whether for club or country. And surely some gust of wind would have blown the ball into Curaçao’s net, allowing Kingston’s famed national stadium to throw the party it craved.

Now here he goes again, one more time.

» READ MORE: Andre Blake begins his 13th season with the Union, still waiting for fate to finally smile on him

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I’m going to give it my best shot, control what I can control, and hopefully that’s good enough. But I know for sure that I’m going to leave it all out there.”

When Blake last spoke about all this, during the Union’s preseason, he said he hadn’t talked much with his Jamaica teammates since the Curaçao game. That seems to have changed, and he signaled that the Reggae Boyz are ready.

“These two games, I don’t think anybody needs motivation,” he said. “We all know what’s at stake, and I think everybody knows what they have to do. And hopefully we all can go out there and make it happen.”

Blake’s last Union game before leaving for national team duty was Saturday’s 2-1 home loss to Chicago. It was the club’s fifth defeat in five league games to start the season, and Blake was almost at a loss for words. After the final whistle, he stood near the center circle alone for a while until some Chicago players came over to say hello, and Fire manager Gregg Berhalter offered a warm embrace.

“I don’t know what to say, you know?” Blake said in the locker room a few minutes later. “It’s just tough times right now. Very, very tough times, and we just just have to keep going. We have to find ways, find motivation wherever, and that’s just the situation right now.”

» READ MORE: Bradley Carnell admits his Union players are feeling ‘a little fragile’ after their latest loss

He even said, when asked how this year compares to the Union’s poor 2024 season, that “this is a different kind of struggle, and I’ve never had this in my life.”

When he returns to Chester, it will be his job to find the message that lights a spark to turn things around. The team’s talent is clearly there, but the mental side is a mess, and as manager Bradley Carnell has said, it threatens to compound.

“It’s difficult -- you don’t want to get too down on yourself, but also, I think we need to do something different to change this,” Blake said. “It can’t just be business as usual, and it’s not going to fix itself, but it gets difficult because you also have to be positive. So we have to figure out a balance, but I know that something needs to change.”

For now, he has to put the Union out of his mind, turn his focus to Jamaica, and take what could be his last shot at steering that ship to the promised land.

» READ MORE: Union fan groups express discontent with the club’s handling of sporting director Ernst Tanner

“Yeah, it’s life, I’ve got to figure it out,” he said. “I’ve got to find ways and means, and every new day is a new opportunity, and you have to learn from the tough times. But you also have to keep going, you have to find ways to move on, so I’m just going to have to figure it out because it’s part of being a pro.”

It’s also part of being a leader for both teams. Blake has embraced that role for a long time, continues to, and knows how badly it’s needed now.

“I try to lead by example first and foremost, and I think that’s most important,” he said. “I always try to put my best foot forward, and that’s what I’m going to do, and that’s what I’m going to keep doing.”

The last six of the 48 teams in the World Cup will be determined over the next few days. Four slots will come from European playoffs, and two will come from FIFA’s intercontinental playoffs. Here’s the schedule of games

1 p.m.: Turkey vs. Romania (FS2 and Univision’s ViX streaming platform)

3:45 p.m.: Wales vs. Bosnia & Herzegovina (ViX) (FS1, ViX), Poland vs. Albania (FS2, ViX). Czechia vs. Republic of Ireland (ViX), Denmark vs. North Macedonia (ViX), Italy vs. Northern Ireland (ViX), Slovakia vs. Kosovo (ViX), Ukraine vs. Sweden (ViX)

6 p.m.: Bolivia vs. Suriname (FS1, Peacock)

11 p.m.: New Caledonia vs. Jamaica (FS1, Peacock)

3:45 p.m.: Czechia-Republic of Ireland winner, Poland-Albania winner vs. Ukraine-Sweden winner, Slovakia-Kosovo winner vs. Turkey-Romania winner, Wales-Bosnia winner vs. Italy-Northern Ireland winner.

Broadcast details will be confirmed after Thursday’s games. The winner of the Slovakia-Kosovo-Turkey-Romania bracket will go into the United States’ group, and be the Americans’ group stage finale opponent on June 25 in Inglewood, Calif.

5 p.m.: Democratic Republic of Congo vs. New Caledonia-Jamaica winner (FS1, Peacock)

11 p.m.: Iraq vs. Bolivia-Suriname winner (FS1, Peacock)

The winner of that game will play in Philadelphia against France on June 22.