Haji Wright seized his opportunity. Will it be enough to stick with the USMNT?

Doug McIntyre

Soccer Journalist

ARLINGTON, Texas — The day after Haji Wright scored a 100th minute goal to beat English Premier League team Wolverhampton and send second tier Coventry City to an unlikely spot in next month’s FA Cup semifinal at London’s famed Wembley Stadium against Manchester United, the American striker was at the airport when his phone rang.

It was U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter.

“I wasn’t thinking he was calling me to come into camp,” said Wright, who Berhalter had left off his 23-player roster for this week’s Concacaf Nations League finals. But fellow forward Josh Sargent had withdrawn from the squad with an ankle injury. Wright was the next man up. The only problem? He was about to board a flight to Dubai for a quick, sun-drenched vacation during the international break.

“My whole family is here, my agent is already there and my girlfriend’s going — she planned the whole thing,” Berhalter said Wright told him. The coach said he understood, and asked Wright to mull over the offer for 10 minutes and make a decision.

“He called me back and said ‘I’m in,'” Berhalter said.

Good choice. Wright came off the bench with the U.S. trailing 1-0 in the second half of Thursday’s semifinal against Jamaica, and after the Americans caught a colossal break via a 95th minute Reggae Boyz own goal, he scored twice in extra time to secure a 3-1 win.

It was a huge victory for the U.S., which will now meet archrival Mexico in Sunday’s final. And it was a huge statement by Wright, who hadn’t been called into the national team since he scored in the Americans’ 3-1 loss to the Netherlands in the knockout stage of the 2022 World Cup.

“He’s a player that’s developed a lot, especially even since the World Cup,” said U.S. veteran Tyler Adams, who captained the USMNT in Qatar. “He was just clinical with every chance he got.”

Wright has been clinical all season with Coventry, for which he has scored 15 goals in 40 games across all competitions. Normally, that would be more than enough to warrant an invitation from Berhalter.

But Folarin Balogun has been the Americans’ first choice forward ever since the dual-citizen committed his international future to the U.S. over England last May. Sargent has 13 goals in England’s Championship division — the same number as Wright — but in 15 fewer games. Super sub Ricardo Pepi is averaging a goal every 50 minutes in the Dutch Eredivisie. There’s a lot of competition up front, and that doesn’t figure to change between now and this summer’s Copa América.

“When I called him and told him he wasn’t on the team, the message was, ‘Listen, you’re doing everything right. You can’t do anything more. So just be patient,'” Berhalter said of their original conversation.

Wright’s performance on Thursday will make the coach’s decisions even more difficult going forward. “I didn’t really let it get to me when I wasn’t in the initial squad, I just tried to keep performing and put myself in a position where I could be called in in the future,” he said. “It all depends on form. I think if I come away from here and I stop scoring, I don’t think I’ll be called into the next camp.

“I have to continue performing,” he added. “Just like everyone else.”

Still, there’s no question that Wright helped himself on Thursday. He’ll surely get another chance against El Tri, either off the bench again or even from the beginning.

“All a guy can do,” Berhalter said after Thursday’s win, “is what he just did.”

Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports. He was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports before joining FOX Sports in 2021, and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.