Panama V USA (R), Final game 2005

[Reycd]

Well since no ones started a thread.. i might as well do it..

0-0 HT

both teams unlucky to score.. the US with more chances.. looking forward to an exciting second half..

Penedo.. Man of the match thus far...

[ac1962]

US soccer stinks, spazzos are stupid

[fordfjord]

Horrible game. Shades of USA vs HON from earlier last week. I swear, I could almost see the grass growing around the feet of the boys in white. The "least worst" team won, as the surely can't be called the "better" team.

But I'm happy for them.

GO USA!

[THOMA GOL]

Panama and it's supporters shouldn't hold their heads down. If anything this should serve as a true confidence booster going back into WCQ. To beat a streaking Colombia and then take the Yanks to the hilt, Panama should take this for some serious carry-over value into the final stages of thre Hex.

[Chizzy]

Panama and it's supporters shouldn't hold their heads down. If anything this should serve as a true confidence booster going back into WCQ. To beat a streaking Colombia and then take the Yanks to the hilt, Panama should take this for some serious carry-over value into the final stages of thre Hex.


The way Panama played the game in this tournament, they definitely deserve to qualify for the World Cup

[Bluecat82]

Props to Panama...they played extremely well...

Kasey Keller is simply the best keeper in the region.

[Dantezo]

Exciting game until the end... VIVA USA!! Back to being CONCACAF champs.
Congrats to Panama as well - they played well and should leave with their heads high as they made second place. Way to go!

[Landon Donovan]

Goooooooooooll Gooooooooooooolll Goooooooooolll !!!!!

[grandinquisitor28]

Agreed, Panama played a wonderful tournament, and in my view, have played the most consistent soccer of any of the squads outside of Mexico, USA, and Costa Rica in Qualifying:

0-0 to Guatemala at home
1-2 to Costa Rica at Costa Rica (giving up the heartbreaking winner in 91st minute)
1-1 to Mexico at home
0-2 to T&T at T&T (the only real crummy performance)
0-3 to USA at USA

Not wonderful results, but other than the T&T result, they show that Panama was in every game they should have been in, and played terrific against Mexico. They badly need to win at home against Costa Rica and T&T, and steal a road point at Guatemala. If they can get seven points from those games, I think they could make the World Cup. The backbreaker is that Guatemala has three home games, but if the US can grab 3 at Guatemala (reasonable considering that we'll probably see the US start most of their first XI in that game), and Panama can do its part like they did in the Cup. I think they grab the 4th slot. I really dont think that T&T will grab it, the only way they do in my view is if Mexico doesn't show at home against them, and I don't see that happening. So Panama or Guatemala will join Costa Rica potentially in the Cup if they can take out the rep from Asia.

[Newman]

The 0-3 loss to the USA was in Panama, thus making it a crummy performance. They were a better side today than they were then (even factoring out the US players who were unavailable today).

[Reycd]

Well we didnt technically lose.. but we lost.. good game.. could have gone either way..
congrats to the US team for winning the Gold Cup

[Peretz48]

And props to the Panamanian cuties in the stands. Univision did a fine job of showing us the 'real talent.' Except there was one woman who was jiggling with a big gut. She violated the 11th Commandment- Thou shalt not permit gordas to boogaloo on camera.

[Hachiko]

And props to the Panamanian cuties in the stands. Univision did a fine job of showing us the 'real talent.' Except there was one woman who was jiggling with a big gut. She violated the 11th Commandment- Thou shalt not permit gordas to boogaloo on camera.

Funny, I thought it was "Remember to keep holy the day of tittilation."
Anyway, props to Panama. They played I think their best game against the USA. I will not be surprised if they end up in a playoff spot against Asia for a WC finals berth...and win. The USA should have sealed the deal by the end of 90. Instead, we are treated to some textbook penalty saves by Keller (though whoever made that shot against him in the penalties should get a look at by MLS IMHO), and Brad Davis being the hero of the game. Kasey was not gonna let Panama pull off what would be one of the biggest upsets in soccer history. In the team's home turf, no less!

Great job USA. And keep your chin-up Panama, you've proven you can compete with the big boys...and maybe be in the running again for the World Cup!

[JBigjake]

http://www.3dflags.com/media/icon/classic/u/3dflagsdotcom_usa_2fawl.gif http://www.napit.co.uk/viewus/infobank/football/concacafgoldcup.jpg

[yankiboy]

Big Props to Panama. They came as close to winning they could of without actually doing so. They really took it to us. We were very, very fortunate to win. I have been saying for about 6 years that they were going to start grabbing some serious regional attention and in the last couple years, they finally made me look "smart" :)

[Reycd]

....Instead, we are treated to some textbook penalty saves by Keller (though whoever made that shot against him in the penalties should get a look at by MLS IMHO)....

The player that scored the penalty shot was I believe, Felipe Baloy (defender) inculded in the best 11, he was recently playing in Brasil and before that Colombia, but last month he was picked up by Monterrey of Mexico on loan from Atletico Paranense of Brasil.. I believe he had a great game yesterday.

[yankiboy]

The player that scored the penalty shot was I believe, Felipe Baloy (defender) inculded in the best 11, he was recently playing in Brasil and before that Colombia, but last month he was picked up by Monterrey of Mexico on loan from Atletico Paranense of Brasil.. I believe he had a great game yesterday.

Baloy looked SICK this tournament. That guy played FANTASTIC! Man, did he come up BIG for Panama. That's guy's Gold Cup performance HAD TO BE NOTICED BY SEVERAL CLUBS. His stock and value had to go UP. I really, really like that guy. He's NEVER looked so good. At least not that I can recall.

[grandinquisitor28]

Funny, I thought it was "Remember to keep holy the day of tittilation."
Anyway, props to Panama. They played I think their best game against the USA. I will not be surprised if they end up in a playoff spot against Asia for a WC finals berth...and win. The USA should have sealed the deal by the end of 90. Instead, we are treated to some textbook penalty saves by Keller (though whoever made that shot against him in the penalties should get a look at by MLS IMHO), and Brad Davis being the hero of the game. Kasey was not gonna let Panama pull off what would be one of the biggest upsets in soccer history. In the team's home turf, no less!

Great job USA. And keep your chin-up Panama, you've proven you can compete with the big boys...and maybe be in the running again for the World Cup!

The 3-0 drubbing I considered not so bad was perhaps a stretch but Panama were deeply unlucky to not put two in the back of the net in that game. Outplayed yes, but they showed well and if they'd played that way against Costa Rica or Guatemala would likely have taken a full 3 off one or both of them.

As for on our home turf, do we even have home turf? Seems like unless we play in the midwest or Seattle, the best we can hope for are agnostics filling the seats, ready to cheer on whomever does better. Rather depressing, but we remain the only team in concacaf without any legit homefield advantage in a majority of venues we seem to play in against other concacaf foes.

[subbuteo]

All hats off to Panama for such a valiant and entertaining performance.

But should US fans be worried at all that they weren't able to win outright?
http://www.goal.com/NewsDetail.aspx?idNews=75908&progr=0

[yankiboy]

As for on our home turf, do we even have home turf? Seems like unless we play in the midwest or Seattle, the best we can hope for are agnostics filling the seats, ready to cheer on whomever does better. Rather depressing, but we remain the only team in concacaf without any legit homefield advantage in a majority of venues we seem to play in against other concacaf foes.

I used to feel the same way but ya know what, GI28? I got over it afew years back.

We have a very active sports landscape in this country and we have an immigration situation unlike most of our CONCACAF neighbors, bar Canada. And with all respect to the Voyaguers and SuperCanucks, we are still ahead of them when it comes to fan support which is why a group like Voyageurs uses Sam's Army as its model. They are trying to get to where we are.

I used to get really, really angry about this and then I finally came to a peace about it. We are a great nation with a lot of entertainment options. Soccer is not even our 4th favorite professional team sport. It still has to compete with Individual sports like Nascar, Golf, Tennis. And we have an incredible immigrant melting pot here that quite frankly, many of our neighbors don't have to the same degree.

There is a reason why the Gold Cup is always staged in the US. Because you already have an incredible of people living here from our CONCACAF neighbors. It's all about "supply and demand".
Then you have to remeber that for the US Men, international soccer (especially depending on the opponent that we face) can be very intimidating to many who wouldn't have hesitated to go see the USWNT prior to the "Fab5" retiring. When the Natettes play, there is more of a family atmosphere at the venues.

So keep your head up. It is what it is and I'm not sure that it will change anytime in the forseeable future.

By the way, if it is any comfort to you: When Los Canaleros came to RFK to play the WCQ in the last round, I was surprised to see the stadium at about 70% Pro-US. The Panamanian supporters were a noticeable minority. As nice as it was, it was kind of bittersweet because we all knew that it was an anomaly and even more profound than that was that it was the Nats last appearance at RFK until the Nationals baseball team gets their own stadium a few years from now.