An unbearably humid evening at Kansas City and a switch in refereeing crews formed the two talking points before the match. The Mexican referee Roberto Garcia Orozco was supposed to have officiated the Honduras vs Haiti match and Joel Aguilar of El Salvador the USA vs Panama match. However the Panamanians lodged a protest against Aguilar and his crew who were the referees for the physical Honduras clash which led to the suspensions of Adolfo Machado and Luis Henriquez and a number of close penalty calls turned down.
This match was one Panama could ill afford to lose. A draw would keep them barely alive and a win would ensure passage to the quarterfinals.
Panama brought in Erick Davis and Valentin Pimentel while Juergen Klinsmann brought back the back line featured in the Honduras opener. Which meant Timmy Chandler who looks like he lights up a few (pretty funny). Which means a somewhat diminished attention span, misplaced passes, giveaways, late challenges, and ambling. Lots of ambling. Panama came out energized and sharp catching the USA flat footed. They enjoyed long spells of possession and pressed successfully when losing the ball.
In the 10th minute Luis Tejada got his head on an Erick Davis set piece but the goal was correctly disallowed for offside. Meanwhile, Gyasi Zardes getting his first start in the Gold Cup was sinking into anonymity, swept aside by Pimentel and Gomez’s unrelenting attention. Zardes has this coltish style of running, his long legs covering plenty of ground but it was almost too easy stealing the ball from him. Michael Bradley usually quite tidy was also guilty of some errant passing. The US looked slow and disjointed. Meanwhile Los Canaleros were stroking the ball confidently and spreading the US defense thin with Alberto Quintero and Luis Tejada getting behind with ease. John Brooks received his second yellow in the group stage as he held back a streaking Tejada and will miss the quarterfinals.
Panama finally got the breakthrough as Tejada in the 34th minute entered the box on the right and bulled past Ventura Alvarado who offered little resistance to slide a pass which Blas Perez was able to get to before a ball watching Brooks’s desperate slide. It was a fully deserved lead. The USA woke up somewhat and Alejandro Bedoya also making his first start back from injury was clearly brought down inches from the box and denied a clear goalscoring opportunity following a US counterattack but the ref waved on play.
The second half saw a marked improvement as De Andre Yedlin and Clint Dempsey were brought in for Alberto Morales and Chris Wondolowski. The USA finally began to move the ball around more quickly with shorter, sharper passes and good off ball movement with Dempsey, Bedoya, and Bradley linking up and Zardes more involved. 10 minutes later, Dempsey fed Bedoya down the left and the winger broke into the box and swept in a knee high cross which Bradley arriving in the middle was able to finish. The Panamanians once again burned by a second half equalizer and perhaps sensing the shifting tide began pressuring again and in the 75th minute Guzan pulled off a spectacular one handed save to turn the ball as Quintero fired in a first time shot after Roberto Nurse, one of Pinto’s subs found him with a through pass. The US defense was otherwise rock solid as Brooks, Alvarado, and even Chandler turned in improved performances. They needed to be as Panama dispatched 20 crosses to the USA’s six and enjoyed an edge in corners taken and shot attempts.
Alejandro Bedoya was probably my man of the match along with Guzan coming up with 7 saves. The winger reminds one of James Milner for his below the radar creative abilities while his work rate and application get far more press. For Panama, danger man Perez now ranks third in Gold Cup goals scored behind Landon Donovan and Luis Roberto Alves. Los Canaleros also have to wait to see if they have qualified as one of the two best third placed finishers. They have competition from El Salvador and Guatemala.