By Paul Kennedy The United States must beat Jamaica Oct. 7 in Foxboro, Mass., and Trinidad & Tobago Nov. 11 in Port of Spain to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. Yes, there are other scenarios by which the United States can qualify but they aren’t likely. The only imaginable result that could help the United States would be a Mexico loss to Costa Rica Oct. 7. That would allow the United States to go through with a win and a tie in its last two games (or a win or two ties if Mexico didn’t beat Honduras in their final game in Mexico City.) A Costa Rica-Mexico tie doesn’t help unless it is followed by a Mexico-Honduras tie or Honduras victory in Mexico City. In that case, three points (a win against Jamaica or T&T) would be sufficient. How has the United States gotten itself in this position? It had two less points (11) after eight games four years ago and still qualified with a game to spare. The big difference this time is that the teams that were chasing the United States when it had its five-point lead for five months are all winning: Costa Rica (five wins in a row), Honduras (four wins in its last five games) and Mexico (three wins in a row). Four years ago, teams were dropping points right and left with ties (13 in 30 games in 1997 vs. 4 in 24 games so far in 2001). In the last week, Jamaica had a chance to take points from Mexico (1-0 lead after 12 minutes) and Honduras (0-0 away into the second half) for the U.S. benefit and blew it. How has the United States done against Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago? The T&T away game may seem to be the trickier one, but the United States has had a much easier time with T&T than Jamaica. Besides the famous 1-0 win in 1989 to qualify for Italia ’90, the United States beat T&T, 1-0, on a Joe-Max Moore goal in Port of Spain in 1996 during qualifying for the World Cup ’98. It also beat T&T, 1-0, on a Hugo Perez goal in Port of Spain in 1987 in qualifying for the 1988 Olympics. The U.S. is 9-1-2 against Trinidad & Tobago. The only loss came in November 1994 when the Americans fell, 1-0, in a meaningless friendly during Bora Milutinovic’s lameduck era. Holdovers from that team: Jeff Agoos and Jovan Kirovski. The 5-1 win in 1988 at the Soccer Park outside St. Louis in the first round of qualifying for Italia ’90 is the only win in five tries for the United States against Jamaica in qualifying, The other results were: 0-0 (1988 away), 0-0 (1997 away), 1-1 (1997 home) and 0-0 (2001 away).