This is the worst, collectively, I’ve ever seen central American soccer. CR, Pan and Honduras are shells of what they’ve largely been over the last 15 years. Those countries golden generations are looking firmly in the rear view mirror now and once Borges, Navas and a couple others officially retire it will be dire. El Salvador is looking better then they have in awhile though.
Panama beats Costa Rica 1-0 and will play Canada in the semifinals of the Nations League. This will be the first time since the 2002 World Cup that the USA and Mexico will play each other in a tournament match that isn't the final.
I would have thrown around some words about Panama having a chance to swing a 5 goal victory at Costa Rica but it is certainly moot now. Panama won by 1 goal.
With 5 tournaments in the next 24-28 months, CONCACAF probably realized that it's best to let everything flow out somewhat naturally. Canada becoming more relevant also scrambles the traditional CONCACAF choice to place emphasis on the two moneymakers. They can still put USA and Mexico on the opposite side of the Gold Cup draw.
I'd love to see us get games against Canada and Mexico but something tells me Panama will play spoiler. Too much bravado from a Canadian team that, while improving, isn't quite as good as it thinks it is. Canada benefitted from a young US team that hadn't fully figured out who it was during qualification and a historically weak Mexican squad. I'm not sure Mexico has changed much since then but this current US team would not finish 3rd in WC qualification today.
Am I understanding the schedule right that the NL final will be on June 18th and the GC will start on June 24th? It seems like CONCACAF is trying to encourage the big teams to just call up their A-teams and roll along right through both competitions.
I think it's also partly because the season ends later this year because of the midseason World Cup. The window this year is technically June 12th through 20th. Whereas last time we had the Nations League it was May 31 through June 15. I do think CONCACAF wanted to have the Gold Cup earlier though to encourage teams to bring their A teams. Last time around it didn't start till July 10 (right around when the Euros ended) and it didn't end till August 1 and that would have meant missing alot of European preseason for guys. There's definitely some overlap this time around with European preseasons, but it's much less than in 2021.
CR and Honduras yes. ..........but Panama is on the rise in terms of results. Their finish in the Ocho doesn't appear to have been a fluke. So Panama and El Salvador up. Honduras and CR down. We could kind of see the downfall of CR coming. They have an aging squad, and their youth teams haven't been good. ..................CR didn't qualify for any of the 2023 U17 World Cup, 2023 U20 World Cup, or 2024 Olympics. They may not have hit rock bottom yet. We'll see. The rise of Canada has pushed all of Central America down a peg. Canada has risen to fourth in the FIFA rankings amongst CONCACAF nations, and with some additional results in the Nations League/Gold Cup..................can rise to 3rd.
I hope not, that's past my bedtime. I don't know. I assume Vegas is normally warm in mid-June when the sun is out, so an outdoor game would be better if played later (at night). Is the Vegas stadium air-cooled? Are two games being played (same day, same place)? Mexico often plays the later game. Who here can provide us with answers? Thanks in advance.
This iteration of Panama is significantly less talented then the Felipe Baloy, Blas Perez, Jaime Penedo, Gabriel Gomez, Roman Torres, Luis Tejada generation which was the back bone of the team from 2005-2018 or so.
Keylor Navas really carried them to the World Cup single-handedly. I can't remember the specific numbers but there was a massive gap between the number of goals that they would have been expected to give up based off xG numbers and what they actually gave up. And that mostly comes down to Navas.
For all the Hugo Perez hype, Thomas Christiansen (and Herdman) seem to have been better coaches to me recently. Panama probably has better talent than El Salvador, but it's not rolling in it. That's a super well coaches team that definitely tries to score. They were the fourth best team in WCQ by xGD, I think -- so they got Navas'd out of a shot at a WC. Now they are in the Nations League Finals. Pretty impressive, and while he didn't do great in the Championship, he's had some club coaching success. I think he's a pretty good coach. They play more proactively so they can get beat more, but they also have a greater chance of winning. Sucks that Fajardo will miss the semis.
I was definitely impressed by Christiansen during qualifying. Another guy who I think would make an interesting hire for an MLS team.
The stadium is a dome. The USA-MEX semifinal is at 7 pm PDT on a Thursday night after the other one is at 4 pm. On Sunday the 3rd place will be 3 pm PDT and the final is 5:30 PDT. Both nights are single-ticket.doubleheaders.
It’s never about the ability of the winning team is it? Always just about the losing team allowing them to win.
When Canada plays the U.S. they bunker and counter. Hardly a testament to their "quality"..... The U.S. of the past got some big scalps doing the same... it can be effective though.
In the last 2 competitive matches Canada and the US have played, Canada created 4 big chances to the US's 2. Canada haven't been bunkering and countering.
U.S. 64% possession vs. 36% possession.... in Canada. U.S. 72% possession vs. 28% possession... in the U.S. Not sure what "creating" big chances has to do with bunkering and countering... you can counter and bunker and have more good opportunities. It is extremely difficult to create good chances on a team that's sitting in.
But the results are better. They really play well as a team. Know the plan and execute. Sometimes a team plays better than the sum of its parts. ..............we just haven't seen that from the USMNT since Bradley was coach. Its become a foreign concept. In late 2022 they drew with Cameroon. Its not just CONCACAF that they're playing well against. Panama's youth teams have improved. Panama's women's team is going to the World Cup for the first time. There does seem to be something going on there.
Are the results better? I don't know that to be the case. I don't think you're giving that Panama golden generation enough credit. I know that generation of Panama players made it to the 2005 GC final, lost to the U.S. 2-1 in the 2007 Gold Cup Quarter-final, lost to the U.S. in AET in the 2009 GC, lost to the U.S. 1-0 in the 2011 GC Semi-final, lost to the U.S. 1-0 in the 2013 GC final, lost to Mexico in the 2015 GC on a dodgy penalty 2-1 (and then beat the U.S. in PKs), lost 1-0 to CR in the 2017 GC, qualified for the 2018 WC. Most of that generation retired in 2018/2019. In the 2019 GC they lost to Jamaica 1-0 in the quarterfinal.... At the 2021 GC they didn't advance from the group....that doesn't indicate "better results" The U.S. never won in Panama during WCQing during the 2006/2010/2014/2018 cycles IIRC. The previous generation of Panama players was also competing with very strong generations from Honduras and CR. Both countries have fallen quite far... Honduras since about 2015... Costa Rica since about 2019... I think this Panama team is ok and well coached but they aren't as nearly as talented or as good as the Panama side we saw in Concacaf from 2005-2018.