R.I.P. Cassini

After 20 years in space and 13 years orbiting Saturn, the veteran spacecraft spent its last 90 seconds or so firing its thrusters as hard as it could to keep sending Saturnian secrets back to Earth for as long as possible.

The spacecraft entered Saturn’s atmosphere at about 3:31 a.m. PDT on September 15 and immediately began running through all of its stabilizing procedures to try to keep itself upright. The signal that Cassini had reached its destination arrived at Earth at 4:54 a.m., and cut out about a minute later as the spacecraft lost its battle with Saturn’s atmosphere.
“The signal from the spacecraft is gone, and within the next 45 seconds, so will be the spacecraft,” Cassini project manager Earl Maize announced from the mission control center at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. “I hope you’re all as deeply proud of this amazing accomplishment. Congratulations to you all. This has been an incredible mission, an incredible spacecraft, and you’re all an incredible team. I’m going to call this the end of mission. Project manager, off the net.”

With that, the mission control team erupted in applause, hugs and some tears.
It’s the end of an era. But the spacecraft’s last moments at Saturn will answer questions that couldn’t have been addressed any other way.
Going out in a blaze of glory seems fitting. Since its launch in 1997, the probe traveled a total of 7.9 billion kilometers. It gathered more than 635 gigabytes of science data and took more than 450,000 images. It completed 294 orbits of Saturn, discovered six named moons and made 162 close, deliberate flybys of the ringed planet’s largest and most interesting moons.
The last flyby sealed Cassini’s fate. On September 11, at 12:04 p.m., Cassini passed by Saturn’s largest moon Titan one last time ( SN Online: 9/11/17 ). The moon’s gravity nudged Cassini on an irretrievable trajectory into the giant planet’s atmosphere.
Also blame the moons — particularly lake-dappled Titan and watery Enceladus — for why Cassini went out in such dramatic fashion. The mission team decided to sacrifice the spacecraft when it ran out of fuel, rather than risk a collision with one of those potentially habitable moons and contaminating it with any still-lingering earthly microbes.

“Because of planetary protection and our desire to go back to Enceladus, go back to Titan, go back to the Saturn system, we must protect those bodies for future exploration,” Jim Green, director of NASA’s planetary science division, said at a news conference on September 13.

Even in its months-long death spiral, Cassini collected unprecedented observations. Starting in April, the spacecraft made 22 dives through the unexplored region between Saturn and its rings. Measurements of the gravity and composition in that zone will help solve outstanding mysteries. How long is Saturn’s day? How much material is in the rings? When and how did the rings form?

To answer that last question in particular, “you have to fly between the planet and the rings,” says planetary scientist Matthew Hedman of the University of Idaho in Moscow, who uses Cassini data to study the rings. “That’s risky. We had to wait until the end of the mission to take that risk.”
On September 13 and 14, Cassini took a last look around the Saturn system’s greatest hits, taking a color mosaic image of Saturn and the rings, a movie sequence of Enceladus setting behind Saturn, Titan and tiny moonlets in the rings that pull the icy ring particles around themselves to form features called propellers.

Inside the mission control center on the afternoon of September 14, a hushed operations team waited for Cassini to come online for the last time to start sending the last pictures back (SNOnline: 9/15/17). Then flight engineer Michael Staab at JPL suddenly broke the silence. “Yeah!” he yelled, pumping both arms in the air. Cassini’s last signal had just come in.

“That tells us that the spacecraft is nice and healthy, she’s doing just fine. She’s doing exactly what she’s supposed to do, like she’s done for 13 years,” Staab said. “We’re just gonna track her now, all the way in.”
In the wee hours of September 15, the spacecraft reconfigured itself to shift from a recording device to a transmitting probe. As of that moment, its last and only job was to stream everything it could sense directly back to Earth in real time. Turning so that its ion neutral mass spectrometer was facing directly towards Saturn, Cassini could taste the atmosphere for the first time and investigate a phenomenon called “ring rain,” in which water and ice from the rings splash into the atmosphere. This idea was introduced in the early 1980s, but Cassini has already shown that it’s more complicated than previously thought.

“We’re trying to find out exactly what is coming from the rings and what is due to the atmosphere,” Hunter Waite, Cassini team lead for the mass spectrometer instrument and an atmospheric scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said at the Sept. 13 news conference. “That final plunge will allow us to do that.”
That plunge happened at about 3:31 a.m., when Cassini entered the atmosphere about 10 degrees north of the equator, falling at around 34 kilometers per second. It took data constantly, directly measuring the temperature, magnetic field, plasma density and composition of the upper layers of Saturn’s atmosphere for the first time ever.
When it hit the atmosphere, Cassini started firing its thrusters to keep its antenna pointed at Earth despite the forces of the atmosphere trying to knock it askew. But about a minute later, the atmosphere won, when Cassini was about 1,400 kilometers above the cloud tops.

What happened next, scientists can only imagine. Models suggest this fiery demise: The spacecraft attempted to stabilize itself, but to no avail. It started to tumble faster and faster. Atmospheric friction broke the spacecraft apart, bit by bit — first its thermal blankets burned off, then aluminum components started to melt. The spacecraft probably fell another 1,000 kilometers as it disintegrated like a meteor, Maize said.

Saturn’s atmosphere crushed and melted the bits and pieces, until they completely dissociated and became part of the very planet the spacecraft had been sent to observe.

When all was said and done, the spacecraft lasted about 30 seconds longer than expected. That may help ensure the team got enough data to figure out Saturn’s rotation period, science team member Michele Dougherty of Imperial College London said at a post-mission news conference September 15. “I’m hoping we can do it, I’m not going to promise. Ask me in three months’ time.”

There are no planned future missions to Saturn, although some Cassini alumni are already working on proposals.
Outer solar system astronomers are now setting their sights on Jupiter and its icy, possibly life-friendly moons. The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) and NASA’s Europa Clipper both hope to launch around 2022. Those missions may pave the way for a lander on Europa (SN Online: 2/18/17), which could directly look for life in that moon’s subsurface seas.

Planetary scientist Kevin Hand at JPL, who is leading the science definition team for the proposed Europa lander, feels a debt to Cassini.

“When you’re at the earliest frontiers of exploration, it’s hard to feel sad,” he said. “The wake we’re experiencing right now for Cassini, it’s not so much an end but the early steps that pave the way for the next stage of exploration.”

Even Maize is more proud than mourning.

“This is exactly the way we always planned it. It’s sad that we’re losing this incredible discovery machine,” he said in the moments leading up to Cassini’s disintegration. “But the real sense here is just, all right, we got it!”

EPA OKs first living pest-control mosquito for use in United States

In a big step toward catching up with the rest of the world, the United States cleared the way for using mosquitoes as a commercial pest control for the first time.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved using a strain of male Asian tiger mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus) as a biopesticide in the District of Columbia and 20 states, including California and New York. Kentucky-based MosquitoMate was granted the right to sell these mosquitoes, called ZAP Males, for the next five years, the agency announced November 7.
These male mosquitoes are not genetically modified. Instead they carry a strain of Wolbachia bacteria that turns them into saboteur dads. When they mate with wild females not carrying the strain, the offspring will die and the population should dwindle. Males don’t bite, so releasing them should not add extra vexation.

Releases of Wolbachia-bearing mosquitoes for pest control already go on in other countries, such as Brazil, although with a different bacterial strain and a different strategy.

This same company has also been testing the effectiveness of a different mosquito species, Aedes aegypti, also carrying bad-dad Wolbachia, near Key West, Fla. (These mosquitoes are not commercially available.) The tests “ended a bit early due to [Hurricane] Irma,” says Stephen Dobson of MosquitoMate, “but we think that we have some good data despite this complication.”

See these first-of-a-kind views of living human nerve cells

The human brain is teeming with diversity. By plucking out delicate, live tissue during neurosurgery and then studying the resident cells, researchers have revealed a partial cast of neural characters that give rise to our thoughts, dreams and memories.

So far, researchers with the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle have described the intricate shapes and electrical properties of about 100 nerve cells, or neurons, taken from the brains of 36 patients as they underwent surgery for conditions such as brain tumors or epilepsy. To reach the right spot, surgeons had to remove a small hunk of brain tissue, which is usually discarded as medical waste. In this case, the brain tissue was promptly packed up and sent — alive — to the researchers.
Once there, the human tissue was kept on life support for several days as researchers analyzed the cells’ shape and function. Some neurons underwent detailed microscopy, which revealed intricate branching structures and a wide array of shapes. The cells also underwent tiny zaps of electricity, which allowed researchers to see how the neurons might have communicated with other nerve cells in the brain. The Allen Institute released the first publicly available database of these neurons on October 25.

A neuron called a pyramidal cell, for instance, has a bushy branch of dendrites (orange in 3-D computer reconstruction, above) reaching up from its cell body (white circle). Those dendrites collect signals from other neural neighbors. Other dendrites (red) branch out below. The cell’s axon (blue) sends signals to other cells that spur them to action.
Like the chandelier cell, a Martinotti cell (below) quiets other cells with messages coming from its tangled, tall axon, which spans several layers of the brain’s cortex — the wrinkly, outer layer that’s involved in higher-level thought. And in a basket cell (above), axon branches, which allow the nerve cell to send messages to other neurons, cluster densely around the cell body.
Because the neurons play different roles in the brain, the new collection could help researchers figure out the details of those diverse jobs. Similar data exist for cells taken from the brains of other animals, such as mice, but until now, data on live cells from people have been scarce.

“These neurons are amazingly beautiful,” says Ed Lein, a neuroscientist at the Allen Institute who works on the project. “They look like trees. They’re much more complex than similar cells in a mouse.”

Terence Crawford vs. Shawn Porter results: Crawford retains WBO welterweight title with 10th-round stoppage

LAS VEGAS — All the questions about Terence Crawford have been answered.

For years, the only knock on him was that he lacked a signature victory. He finally picked up one — and in exceptional fashion — when he became the first fighter to stop Shawn Porter, recording a 10th-round TKO to retain his WBO welterweight championship in front of 11,568 fans at Michelob ULTRA Arena.
Now, the world will be clamoring for a unification bout with IBF and WBC champion Errol Spence Jr.

As it always has been against Porter, winning didn't come easy.

At the time of the stoppage, Crawford was up on all three scorecards: 86-85, 86-85 and 87-84. Porter routinely barreled inside and kept Crawford off balance with aggression and pressure. But Crawford began to time Porter's advances and then picked him off with counters that eventually wore down the former two-time champion.

In the 10th round, Crawford opened with a thudding left hand that deposited Porter on his backside. A frustrated Porter made it to his feet but was met with a scintillating combination that dropped Porter to his knees. Porter pounded on the canvas out of frustration and made it back to his feet again. Unfortunately, his father and trainer, Kenny Porter, decided that his son had had enough and threw in the towel.

Crawford improved to 38-0 with 29 knockouts. Porter became his ninth consecutive knockout victim. As for Porter, his career is at a crossroads of sorts as he falls to 31-4-1 and goes to the back of the line when it comes to title opportunities.

Here's how it all went down in Las Vegas.

Terence Crawford vs. Shawn Porter live updates, highlights
(All times Eastern.)

Round 10 (12:15 a.m.): Crawford drops Porter with a left hand to open the round! Porter is up and Crawford is a killer. He’s looking to finish the job. Crawford with a barrage that drops Crawford. Porter beats the canvas on his way up. Porter’s corner stops it! Wow!

Round 9 (12:13 a.m.): Short left hand by Porter lands to open the round. Big hook by Porter barely lands. Bud is unbothered. Body shot by Porter. Crawford looking for his spots and Porter isn’t making it easy. Crawford lands an uppercut on the inside and a body shot. 10-9, Crawford (86-85, Crawford)

Round 8 (12:09 a.m.): Crawford with a hard right hand and Porter comes straight at him throwing bombs. Crawford avoids and picks him off with a right hand. Beautiful sequence by Bud. Porter chops him on the inside with a short left and barrels inside. Hard left hand by Porter. Big right hand by Porter rattles Crawford. Crawford smiles and centers himself. How do you score this round? 10-9, Crawford (76-76)

Round 7 (12:04 a.m.): Porter strafes Bud with a left hand. Crawford gives Porter different looks and feints. They exchange left hands. Right hand by Porter lands and Crawford bounces off the ropes. Short counter right by Crawford as Porter rolls in. Porter won’t stop coming. Bud is smiling again. But he’s not throwing enough. 10-9, Porter (67-66, Porter)

Round 6 (12:01 a.m.): Crawford lands a big right hand They are going to war again. Crawford looking for the big shot and loading up. Porter comes roaring back. They clash heads. Crawford looks like he’s enjoying the dog fight. Porter roughs him up on the inside. Man, this is a damn fight. Counter left on the inside by Crawford. Lots of infighting to close a tight round. 10-9, Crawford (57-57)

Round 5 (11:57 p.m.): Porter working on Bud from the inside with some roughhousing. Crawford trying to walk Porter down. Flashes the jab. Porter bombing away on Crawford as he covers up. Not a lot gets through. Crawford walking him down. Porter is just outworking him in this round but Crawford is hoping he spent up his gas tank. 10-9, Porter (48-47, Porter)

Round 4 (11:52 p.m.): Hard left hook from Porter to open the round. Crawford lands a combination and a left hand. They exchange hard shots. Porter lands a right hand and Bud smiles. Porter with a jab and Bud responds to the body. Porter with a lunging hook that lands. Crawford with a check hook that almost Ricky Hatton'd Porter. They start swinging again. Closer round. 10-9, Crawford (38-38)

Round 3 (11:48 p.m): Crawford looks comfortable fighting lefty. Starts pushing Porter back. Porter lands a hard combination. Crawford tried to time and barely missed a counter hook. Porter stuns Bud with a left hand! Bud smiles but he was cracked. They are talking now. Porter is cut over the right eye. Crawford smiling but he knows that he's now in a fight. 10-9, Porter (29-28, Porter)

Round 2 (11:44 p.m.): Porter lands a jab and Bud switches to southpaw. Barely misses a counter. Lands a hard right hand on Porter. Porter cracks Bud with a hard right hand in response. Crawford lands a right hand and barely misses an uppercut. A firefight breaks out. Both landing hard shots. Bud with a counter uppercut and Porter with a right hand. Crawford lands the jab and smiles. We're about to have a good one. 10-9, Crawford (19-19)

Round 1 (11:40 p.m.): Porter rushes right at Crawford with a left hook and follows with a right hand that lands. Porter aims to rough Bud up along the ropes and gets tied up. Crawford is reading and timing Porter. Starts to fire the jab. Left hand by Porter lands. Hard jab by Bud lands. Crawford smirks at Porter. He may have figured out something already. 10-9, Porter

11:30 p.m.: "Showtime" Shawn Porter makes his entrance with WWE champion Big E and Grammy-nominated Hip Hop artist Rapsody while Terence Crawford keeps it simple by walking alone to LL Cool J's "I'm Bad."

10:58 p.m.: Through six rounds, Esquiva Falcao, the 2012 Olympic silver medalist from Brazil, has been applying immense pressure to Patrice Volny. Volny tried to work from the outside but Falcao's persistence to throttle Volny from the inside racked up rounds. But a nasty clash of heads in the sixth round split Falcao open above the left eye. Falcao is in a lot of pain and it's likely this fight is going to be stopped. Yup, it's over. Main event is next.

10:22 p.m.: Janibek Alimkhanuly didn't have much trouble turning back the challenge of Hassan N'Dam. He chopped him down over the course of eight rounds to earn the TKO stoppage. N'Dam's best years as a contender are clearly behind him, while Alimkhanuly remains one to watch in the middleweight division. As the rounds wore on, it became target practice for Alimkhanuly. N'Dam offered little resistance and was routinely clocked by power punches and a hard left hand. The mounting damage was too much for referee Kenny Bayless and the fight was called at the 2:40 mark of the eighth.

9:37 p.m.: As expected, Muratalia mowed down Araujo with an exceptional display of body punching and aggression to pick up the fifth-round TKO.

9 p.m.: We're live from Las Vegas and the pay-per-view portion of Crawford-Porter will kick off with Raymond Muratalla and Elias Araujo competing in a lightweight showdown.

Terence Crawford vs. Shawn Porter start time
Date: Saturday, Nov. 20
Main card time: 9 p.m. ET | 6 p.m. PT
Main event: 11 p.m. ET | 8 p.m. PT (approx.)
Crawford and Porter are set to step into the ring at about 11 p.m. ET. The night will begin with early prelims at 6 p.m. ET, followed by the prelim card at 7 p.m. ET and the main card at 9 p.m. ET.
We may earn an affiliate commission when you sign up for a streaming service through our links. Sporting News' affiliates have no influence over the editorial content included in this article.

Where is ‘College GameDay’ this week? Location, schedule, guest picker for Week 12 on ESPN

For the first time all season, Columbus, Ohio will host "College GameDay" in what will be a massive game between the fourth-ranked Buckeyes and No. 7 Michigan State.

Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, Desmond Howard, David Pollack and Co. will head to Ohio Stadium to preview a game that will not only affect the Big Ten championship race, but also the College Football Playoff rankings. Should the Spartans pull off the upset in Columbus, they will have only Penn State and the Big Ten West division champion standing between them and a playoff berth.
Things are slightly more complicated for Ohio State which, even with a win on Saturday, has a tough road to a fifth playoff appearance. They must then face No. 6 Michigan in The Big House before heading to Indianapolis for the Big Ten championship game. The Buckeyes then have to contend with their Week 2 loss to Oregon, yet another team that is in the playoff chase.
This game could be a contrast of styles as Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud seeks to lead the Buckeyes to victory. He has completed 68.8 percent of his passes for 3,036 yards and 30 touchdowns to five interceptions. He has no shortage of skill position weapons to use in Jaxon Smith-Njigba (59 receptions, 1,027 yards, five touchdowns), Garrett Wilson (53 receptions, 813 yards, nine touchdowns) or Chris Olave (51 receptions, 708 yards, 11 touchdowns). Running back TreVeyon Henderson (141 rushes, 1,035 yards, 14 touchdowns) is a home run threat as well.

There's no question who Michigan State's offense runs through: running back Kenneth Walker III. The junior leads all FBS in rushing yards (1,483 yards) and ties the national lead in rushing touchdowns (17) and touchdowns from scrimmage (18). He is also coming off three straight games with at least 143 yards and one score. In fact, he only has three games rushing for fewer than 100 yards this season.

Which play style will win out on Saturday? Only one way to find out. Until then, Sporting News has you covered on how to watch "College GameDay" preview the massive Big Ten meeting.
Where is 'College GameDay' location for Week 12?
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Matchup: No. 7 Michigan State at No. 4 Ohio State
The Buckeyes will make their 51st all time appearance on "GameDay" on Saturday, giving them one more than second-place Alabama for most all time. It will also be Ohio State's 20th time hosting "GameDay," a scenario in which the Buckeyes are 14-5 all time. More impressive is that all but one of those games took place between ranked teams (the lone exception was a 38-24 win over unranked Penn State in 2010).

Surprisingly, Ohio State has more nonconference losses in Ohio Stadium than conference losses; they have lost to Texas (2005), USC (2009) and Oklahoma (2017). In the Big Ten, only Penn State (2008) and Michigan State (2015) can claim "GameDay" victories in Columbus.

Michigan State is making its 16th all-time appearance on "GameDay," where it has gone 9-6 in its previous 15 matchups. That includes a 2-1 record as the road team, 9-2 record in ranked matchups and 2-2 record against Ohio State.
'College GameDay' schedule on ESPN
TV channel: ESPN
Start time: 9 a.m. ET
Davis, Herbstreit, Howard and Pollack will preview Week 12 action live from Ohio Stadium starting at 9 a.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN, with kickoff set for 7 p.m. ET.

"GameDay" has three games to consider for its Week 13 visit, depending on how Week 12 plays out. The most obvious of those is No. 4 Ohio State at No. 6 Michigan. The game could very well determine the Big Ten East champion and, by extension, the Big Ten champion outright. Another option is Bedlam, between No. 13 Oklahoma and No. 9 Oklahoma State in Stillwater. It's possible the game features the Sooners and Cowboys as one-loss opponents; it could also be the first of two meetings this season. The meeting between No. 2 Alabama and Auburn in the Iron Bowl is also worth visiting, though the SEC West race could already be decided by then.

Week Matchup Location Guest Picker Corso's Headgear Outcome
0 Alcorn State vs. NCCU Atlanta Eddie George Braves NCCU 23, Alcorn State 14
1 No. 5 Georgia vs. No. 3 Clemson Charlotte, N.C. Kane Brown Bulldogs Georgia 10, Clemson 3
2 No. 10 Iowa at No. 9 Iowa State Ames, Iowa Ashton Kutcher Hawkeyes Iowa 27, Iowa State 17
3 No. 22 Auburn at No. 10 Penn State University Park, Pa. Saquon Barkley Nittany Lions Penn State 28, Auburn 20
4 No. 12 Notre Dame vs. No. 18 Wisconsin Chicago Danica Patrick Fighting Irish Notre Dame 41, Wisconsin 13
5 No. 8 Arkansas at No. 2 Georgia Athens, Ga. Harris English Bulldogs Georgia 37, Arkansas 0
6 No. 6 Oklahoma vs. No. 21 Texas Dallas Mark Cuban Longhorns Oklahoma 55, Texas 48
7 No. 11 Kentucky at No. 2 Georgia Athens, Ga. Jeff Foxworthy Bulldogs Georgia 30, Kentucky 13
8 No. 10 Oregon at UCLA Pasadena, Calif. Bill Walton Bruins Oregon 34, UCLA 31
9 No. 6 Michigan at No. 8 Michigan State East Lansing, Mich. Ken Jeong Wolverines Michigan State 37, Michigan 33
10 Tulsa at No. 6 Cincinnati Cincinnati Nick Lachey Bearcats Cincinnati 28, Tulsa 20
11 No. 11 Texas A&M at No. 15 Ole Miss Oxford, Miss. Lane Kiffin Rebels Ole Miss 29, Texas A&M 19
12 No. 7 Michigan State at No. 4 Ohio State Columbus, Ohio TBD TBD TBD
Who is the guest picker on 'College GameDay' for Week 12?
"GameDay" has yet to announce its celebrity guest picker for Week 12.

Jamaica vs. USA result: USMNT escapes with a draw after Jamaica goal disallowed

Win at home and pick up points on the road. That’s the formula to qualify for the World Cup from the CONCACAF region and the U.S. national team did what it had to do in coming away with a lackluster 1-1 draw against Jamaica in Kingston.

The Americans were fortunate not to have finished on the losing end after a Jamaican goal six minutes from time was disallowed. The referee ruled that Jamaica’s Damion Lowe held down U.S. defender Walker Zimmerman when he went up for his header on a corner kick.

The USA will take the point, which comes on the heels of a 2-0 win over rivals Mexico on Friday. The result has the Americans in good position ahead of the final two rounds of matches in January and March 2022.

The Americans broke through first in Kingston on a solo run by Tim Weah, who was one of the best players against Mexico. He finished off a penetrating run down the left side of the Jamaican box by lifting the ball over the shoulder of Jamaican ‘keeper Andre Blake and an early 11th-minute lead.

Jamaica responded to the USA’s solo effort with one of their own as star forward Michail Antonio fired a long-distance blast that easily beat U.S. goalkeeper Zack Steffen and tucked in under the crossbar.

The Jamaicans were desperate for three points from this game to make up ground in the standings. And the Reggae Boyz will be disappointed by a penalty that wasn’t called in the first half on a Chris Richards arm deflection in the box, though the arm was tucked in.
But it wasn’t just about the officials. Jamaica’s Bobby Reid also missed an incredible 53rd-minute chance inside the six-yard box that he’ll want to have back.

The result keeps the USA on track to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It returns in January with two home games (vs. El Salvador and vs. Honduras) and a road match against Canada. The picture is bleak for Jamaica, which has plenty of ground to make up before the rest of the results are in on Matchday 8.

Jamaica vs. USA final score
1H 2H Final
Jamaica 1 0 1
USA 1 0 1
Goals:
USA — Timothy Weah — 11th min.
JAM — Michail Antonio — 22nd min.

(All times Eastern)

Final: Jamaica 1, USA 1
84th min.: Jamaica scores but it's disallowed by the referee! A header on a corner by Damion Lowe hits the back of the net, but the referee rules that Lowe held Walker Zimmerman down when he went up for it. Replays show that was a really questionable call.
83rd min.: Neither team really panicking yet to get a goal. Jamaica's got to turn it up at some point.

78th min.: SUBS - USA brings on Jesus Ferreira and Paul Arriola for Ricardo Pepi and Brenden Aaronson as the Americans look to nick a goal to win it.

74th min.: Now it's Ravel Morrison unleashing a shot for Jamaica. Those subs are bringing an energy to the Reggae Boyz. They need these three points.

73rd min.: What a chance for Jamaica! Michail Antonio gets the ball past a charging Zack Steffen, but there are no teammates following the play and the USA clears.

68th min.: SUBS - Triple sub for Jamaica. Junior Flemming, Ravel Morrison and Anthony Grant are in for Bobby Reid, Lamar Walker and Je-Vaughn Watson.

66th min.: SUBS - Christian Pulisic and Kellyn Acosta come into the match for Tim Weah and Yunus Musah. Perhaps Pulisic and Acosta can bring some quality to the game, which has been brutally poor.

53rd min.: What a miss by Jamaica's Bobby Reid. A poor Antonee Robinson clearance falls to Reid who was alone in the six-yard box and he blasts it high of the goal with Zack Steffen closing the angle. Incredible miss.
52nd min.: USA's turn for a shot outside the box. Gianluca Busio in an advanced position blasts a right-footed shot that just misses the crossbar.
51st min.: The fan atmosphere is not a factor in Kingston. Only 5,000 fans were allowed and it doesn't feel like there are 5,000 there. All you hear are horns.
48th min.: It's Jamaica with the first chance of the second half. After a set piece the ball pops out to Leigh, who rips a left-footed shot that high of the target.

46th min.: Second half underway. Jamaica left back Kemar Lawrence has to come out of the game with Greg Leigh replacing him. No changes for the USA.

Halftime: Jamaica 1, USA 1
40th min.: Speaking of VAR -- Jamaica right back Javain Brown goes flying in with a two-footed lunge on U.S. captain Tyler Adams and he takes him out. If there were VAR, that'd be a red card.

38th min.: Leon Bailey kept in check by USA's Antonee Robinson down the attacking right. Jamaica earns a corner, but nothing comes of it. Half-hearted appeal for a Jamaica penalty after a ball was whipped into the box, but the referee isn't going for it. Replays show it came off Chris Richards's shoulder. No hand ball. Reminder: No VAR in CONCACAF.

34th min.: Teams playing between penalty boxes and with the odd foul. It's telling that this match has been defined by two solo efforts. Not much build-up from either team.

22nd min.: What a goal by Michail Antonio! If you're a U.S. fan or goalkeeper Zack Steffen, you tip your cap to the West Ham man with a blast from 30 yards out that he blasted under the bar. What power behind that one.
21st min.: USMNT waste a free kick out to the left. Gianluca Busio with the ball straight out of play.

16th min.: Two big saves on point-blank shots by Jamaica goalkeeper Andre Blake! That U.S. goal has shifted the momentum in the USA's favor for the moment.

11th min.: Goal USA! Out of nowhere a moment of brilliance from Timothy Weah who made a penetrating solo run down the left and lifted the ball over the shoulder of Andre Blake from a tough angle. What you might not know about Weah: His mom is Jamaican.
10th min.: No rhythm to this game. No sustained possession. Sloppy and choppy start to this for both teams.

8th min.: First yellow of the match and of course it's Je-Vaughn Watson. Wild challenge on Gianluca Busio.

1st min.: We're off. USA pinned in its own half to start the match. Chris Richards is the left center back, with Walker Zimmerman in his customary right center back spot.

3:53 p.m.: Young lineup. But can it get the job done?
Jamaica vs. USA lineups
In a must-win home game, Bailey and Antonio start. Manager Theodore Whitmore has made two changes on his back line with Liam Moore coming in for veteran center back Adrian Mariappa and Javain Brown taking over at right back for Oniel Fisher, who isn't even listed on the bench.

Jamaica starting lineup (4-2-3-1, left to right): 1-Andre Blake-GK — 20-Kemar Lawrence, 17-Damion Lowe, 6-Liam Moore, 14-Javain Brown — 22-Devon "Speedy" Williams, 15-Je-Vaughn Watson — 21-Lamar Walker, 10-Bobby Reid, 7-Leon Bailey — 18-Michail Antonio

Jamaica subs (10): Dwayne Miller-GK, Jeadine White-GK, Alvas Powell, Greg Leigh, Adrian Mariappa, Anthony Grant, Ravel Morrison, Junior Flemmings, Cory Burke, Shamar Nicholson

Already without the injured Sergino Dest and Gio Reyna, Weston McKennie (yellow cards) and Miles Robinson (red card) are out for the U.S. because of suspension, and both will leave significant holes. Gianluca Busio and Chris Richards are the replacements. Those were the only forced changes from the win over Mexico.
Christian Pulisic starts on the bench with the three-man front line of Aaronson-Pepi-Weah that worked so well against Mexico, getting another start.

USA starting lineup (4-3-3, left to right): 1-Zack Steffen-GK — 5-Antonee Robinson, 15-Chris Richards, 3-Walker Zimmerman, 2-DeAndre Yedlin — 16-Gianluca Busio, 4-Tyler Adams (capt.), 6-Yunus Musah — 11-Brenden Aaronson, 9-Ricardo Pepi, 20-Tim Weah

USA subs (12): 13-Matt Turner-GK, 22-Reggie Cannon, 18-Mark McKenzie, 8-James Sands, 12-Joe Scally, 21-Sam Vines, 23-Kellyn Acosta, 17-Sebastian Lletget, 14-Cristian Roldan, 10-Christian Pulisic, 7-Paul Arriola, 19-Jesus Ferreira

How to watch Jamaica vs. USA
Date: Tues, Nov. 16
Time: 5 p.m. ET
TV Channels: Universo
Streaming: fuboTV , Paramount+
Jamaica vs. U.S. will air on Universo (Spanish) and Paramount+ (English) with the Universo feed available via stream on fuboTV . New users can try fuboTV on a free 7-day trial .

There will be 5,000 fans expected in Kingston’s National Stadium, around 15 percent of capacity. That’s still more than the Jamaicans had at their past two qualifying home games, in which they failed to register a victory.

CONCACAF 2022 World Cup Qualifying: Schedule, standings, TV for soccer Octagonal

We're now into the second half of the qualifying schedule and it's Canada at the top of the CONCACAF 2022 World Cup qualifying standings.

A 2-1 home win over Mexico allowed the Canadians to overtake the USA atop the eight-team table. Canada is the only remaining unbeaten team in qualifying as it continues to push to qualify for its first World Cup since 1986.

The USA (2nd, 15 points) and Mexico (3rd, 14 points), long the powers of the region, are now chasing. Meanwhile, Panama continued its surge with another dramatic come-from-behind victory to go level with Mexico on 14 points. The top three teams earn automatic berths to the World Cup, while fourth-place earns passage to a play-in series for one of the final spots in Qatar 2022.

The other half of the table is in precarious position. A group of three teams — Costa Rica (5th), Jamaica (6th), El Salvador (7th) — is now between 5-8 points behind Panama for fourth place. Meanwhile, it's looking unlikely that Honduras will be able to recover from its last-place point total. 

The first standings tiebreakers are (1) goal difference, (2) goals scored and (3) most points obtained from matches between teams that are tied. The full list of tiebreakers and results for Matchdays 1-7 follow at the bottom of this post.

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying Standings & Results
Team PTS GP W L D GF GA GD

  1. Canada 16 8 4 0 4 13 5 +8
  2. USA 15 8 4 1 3 12 5 +7
  3. Mexico 14 8 4 2 2 11 7 +4
  4. Panama 14 8 4 2 2 11 9 +2
  5. Costa Rica 9 8 2 3 3 6 7 -1
  6. Jamaica 7 8 1 3 4 6 10 -4
  7. El Salvador 6 8 1 4 3 4 10 -6
  8. Honduras 3 8 0 5 3 5 15 -10
    Matchday 8
    Date Match
    Tues, Nov. 16, 2021 Jamaica 1 , USA 1 Highlights
    Tues, Nov. 16, 2021 Costa Rica 2 , Honduras 1 Highlights
    Tues, Nov. 16, 2021 Panama 2 , El Salvador 1 Highlights
    Tues, Nov. 16, 2021 Canada 2, Mexico 1 Highlights
    Matchday 9
    Date Match Time (ET) Stream
    Thurs, Jan. 27, 2022 Honduras vs. Canada TBD TBD
    Thurs, Jan. 27, 2022 USA vs. El Salvador TBD TBD
    Thurs, Jan. 27, 2022 Costa Rica vs. Panama TBD TBD
    Thurs, Jan. 27, 2022 Jamaica vs. Mexico TBD TBD
    Matchday 10
    Date Match Time (ET) Stream
    Sun, Jan. 30, 2022 Canada vs. USA TBD TBD
    Sun, Jan. 30, 2022 Honduras vs. El Salvador TBD TBD
    Sun, Jan. 30, 2022 Mexico vs. Costa Rica TBD TBD
    Sun, Jan. 30, 2022 Panama vs. Jamaica TBD TBD
    Matchday 11
    Date Match Time (ET) Stream
    Wed, Feb. 2, 2022 El Salvador vs. Canada TBD TBD
    Wed, Feb. 2, 2022 USA vs. Honduras TBD TBD
    Wed, Feb. 2, 2022 Mexico vs. Panama TBD TBD
    Wed, Feb. 2, 2022 Jamaica vs. Costa Rica TBD TBD
    Matchday 12
    Date Match Time (ET) Stream
    Thurs, March 24, 2022 Costa Rica vs. Canada TBD TBD
    Thurs, March 24, 2022 Panama vs. Honduras TBD TBD
    Thurs, March 24, 2022 Jamaica vs. El Salvador TBD TBD
    Thurs, March 24, 2022 Mexico vs. USA TBD TBD
    Matchday 13
    Date Match Time (ET) Stream
    Sun, March 27, 2022 Canada vs. Jamaica TBD TBD
    Sun, March 27, 2022 Honduras vs. Mexico TBD TBD
    Sun, March 27, 2022 El Salvador vs. Costa Rica TBD TBD
    Sun, March 27, 2022 USA vs. Panama TBD TBD
    Matchday 14
    Date Match Time (ET) Stream
    Wed, March 30, 2022 Panama vs. Canada TBD TBD
    Wed, March 30, 2022 Jamaica vs. Honduras TBD TBD
    Wed, March 30, 2022 Mexico vs. El Salvador TBD TBD
    Wed, March 30, 2022 Costa Rica vs. USA TBD TBD
    CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying results & highlights
    Matchday 1
    Date Match
    Thurs, Sept. 2, 2021 Canada 1, Honduras 1 Highlights
    Thurs, Sept. 2, 2021 Panama 0, Costa Rica 0 Highlights
    Thurs, Sept. 2, 2021 Mexico 2, Jamaica 1 Highlights
    Thurs, Sept. 2, 2021 El Salvador 0, USA 0 Highlights
    Matchday 2
    Date Match
    Sun, Sept. 5, 2021 Jamaica 0, Panama 3 Highlights
    Sun, Sept. 5, 2021 Costa Rica 0, Mexico 1 Highlights
    Sun, Sept. 5, 2021 El Salvador 0, Honduras 0 Highlights
    Sun, Sept. 5, 2021 USA 1, Canada 1 Highlights
    Matchday 3
    Date Match
    Wed, Sept. 8, 2021 Canada 3, El Salvador 0 Highlights
    Wed, Sept. 8, 2021 Panama 1, Mexico 1 Highlights
    Wed, Sept. 8, 2021 Costa Rica 1, Jamaica 1 Highlights
    Wed, Sept. 8, 2021 Honduras 1, USA 4 Highlights
    Matchday 4
    Date Match
    Thurs, Oct. 7, 2021 USA 2, Jamaica 0 Highlights
    Thurs, Oct. 7, 2021 Honduras 0, Costa Rica 0 Highlights
    Thurs, Oct. 7, 2021 Mexico 1, Canada 1 Highlights
    Thurs, Oct. 7, 2021 El Salvador 1, Panama 0 Highlights
    Matchday 5
    Date Match
    Sun, Oct. 10, 2021 Panama 1, USA 0 Highlights
    Sun, Oct. 10, 2021 Jamaica 0, Canada 0 Highlights
    Sun, Oct. 10, 2021 Costa Rica 2, El Salvador 1 Highlights
    Sun, Oct. 10, 2021 Mexico 3, Honduras 0 Highlights
    Matchday 6
    Date Match
    Wed, Oct. 13, 2021 USA 2, Costa Rica 1 Highlights
    Wed, Oct. 13, 2021 Canada 4, Panama 1 Highlights
    Wed, Oct. 13, 2021 Honduras 0, Jamaica 2 Highlights
    Wed, Oct. 13, 2021 El Salvador 0, Mexico 2 Highlights
    Matchday 7
    Date Match
    Fri, Nov. 12, 2021 Honduras 2 , Panama 3 Highlights
    Fri, Nov. 12, 2021 USA 2 , Mexico 0 Highlights
    Fri, Nov. 12, 2021 Canada 1 , Costa Rica 0 Highlights
    Fri, Nov. 12, 2021 El Salvador 1 , Jamaica 1 Highlights
    How CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying works
    Eight nations from the CONCACAF region (North America, Central America and the Caribbean) are competing for three automatic berths to the 2022 Qatar World Cup in the final "octagonal" qualifying round.

The eight countries are facing off in a round-robin format with each team playing the other seven opponents once at home and once on the road. The 14 total matches for each national team began in September 2021 and will wrap up in March 2022.

The top three finishers will earn automatic berths to Qatar, while the fourth-place team will head to an intercontinental playoff with a final ticket to Qatar on the line. Here are the standings tiebreakers for teams even on points:

Goal difference in all group matches
Most goals scored in all group matches
Most points obtained from group matches between teams concerned
Goal difference from group matches between teams concerned
Most goals scored in group matches between teams concerned
Goals scored away from home (if two teams tied)
Discipline points (based on yellow/red cards)
Drawing of lots by FIFA
The Qatar World Cup will be played from Nov. 21 to Dec. 18, 2022.