Photo by Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
By FRANCO PANIZO
CHESTER, Pa. — A disappointment tournament came with a disappointing ending for the U.S. Men’s National Team.
The U.S. was on the losing end of the CONCACAF Gold Cup’s third-place game, falling to Panama, 3-2, on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw at PPL Park on Saturday evening. The Americans missed on their final three attempts in the shootout, as Fabian Johnson shot high before Panama goalkeeper Luis Mejia stopped back-to-back attempts from Michael Bradley and DaMarcus Beasley.
The result marked the first time the Americans failed to win back-to-back games at a Gold Cup. The U.S. had also not finished outside the top three in the tournament since 2000.
In a match that lacked energy and intensity for much of regulation, it was Panama that created the better scoring chances. The Panamanians did not find get their reward until the 55th minute via a finish from Roberto Nurse, but U.S. substitute Clint Dempsey found an equalizer 15 minutes later to force extra time.
The added 30 minutes yielded little in the way of chances for either side, though there was a brief skirmish near midfield that caused a delay in the action.
Both the U.S. and Panama made each of their first two penalty kicks in the ensuing shootout, but the Americans missed the first of three consecutive penalties when Fabian Johnson hit his third-round attempt over the crossbar.
Brad Guzan, who turned in a strong performance in goal, prevented Jurgen Klinsmann’s side from trailing in the third round by stopping a weak effort hit low by Armando Cooper.
Bradley was then denied superbly by Mejia, who dove low and to the right to block the U.S. captain’s effort.
Panama took the lead for good on its fourth penalty, with Harold Cummings beating Guzan. Beasley, who entered the game as a substitute in extra time, then had his shot to the right blocked by Mejia to seal the Americans’ fate.
It was a rough match for the U.S. from start to finish, as it conceded the better scoring opportunities in a drab first half.
Panama came close to finding an opener in the 36th minute when Cooper penetrated the defense on a dribbling run before hitting a low shot that slipped past Guzan but was cleared just in front of the goal line by a sliding Tim Ream.
The Americans had to come up with a second goal-line clearance in the 54th minute to keep the match scoreless. A hard shot was headed for the bottom-right corner following a corner kick, but Fabian Johnson was there at the post to smash the ball out.
Chris Wondolowski nearly put the Americans out in front three minutes before then. After Timmy Chandler whipped in a cross from the right, Wondolowski nicked the ball with his head before seeing it go inches wide of the far post.
Nurse finally opened the scoring in the 55th minute, cutting inside of Ream and John Brooks before calmly slotting a low, curled effort past Guzan.
The Panamanians nearly doubled the lead in the 65th minute. Nurse hit a knock-down header into the path of Roman Torres on the play, but the Canaleros‘ captain could not keep his low attempt on frame.
The Americans found their equalizer through Dempsey in the 70th minute. Seconds after Panama failed to put away a golden two-on-two opportunity, DeAndre Yedlin latched onto a ball played over the top and alertly fed a wide-open Dempsey, who hit a sliding finish in front of an empty goal.
In the 81st minute, Guzan came up with a stop to deny Rolando Blackburn of a go-ahead goal. Blackburn got on the end of a free kick from the left and put it on frame, but Guzan spectacularly stopped it with his left hand.
Continuing to take advantage of space and lax marking, Panama almost took the lead in the 85th minute when Blackburn smacked a volley wide of the U.S. goal.
Panama came closest to finding a winner in the extra 30 minutes, with Nurse firing a shot from inside the penalty area that Guzan pawed away in the 108th minute.
Nurse was again denied by Guzan in the 110th minute. Staying onside while a pass was slipped in behind the defense, Nurse raced in on goal at an angle and hit a ball that Guzan blocked with his body.
Despite Guzan’s efforts there and in the penalty shootout, Panama prevailed to further add to the U.S.’s misery at this Gold Cup.
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What do you think about the USMNT’s penalty-kick loss to Panama? How disappointed are you by the result and this Gold Cup showing from the Americans? Which players impressed/disappointed you in this match?
Share your thoughts below.
Forgive me if I missed it, but where was Danny Williams??
Re. youth development it’s better than ever in this country…better than ever…and I find that discussion in this thread to be diversionary and off target much like our team
Seriously, did it look like that team quit on Klinsmann or what? Just horrible to digest for this 30 year follower of the program.
If any are looking for evidence of the tactical issues this team currently endures just check out that Jamaica game. If it remains unclear after that perhaps you don’t understand. And I’m not going to explain it to you…self evident it is
4th place? Fortunately our WC qualifying group is super flipping weak…can’t believe I’m saying that in 2015 this far into the JK experience
Somehow it seems crucial to me that one understands that the US has overachieved in international soccer over the past two decades. With very little professional soccer and amateur/youth soccer of fairly recent vintage, the US got to the knockout stage of the WC several times and to the quarterfinals once. And you have to understand that it was exceptional coaching that got teams of no great talent and limited technical ability to win more than their share of games. Bob and Bruce are masters of piecing together successful teams from unlikely material.
If the US is ever to move beyond these achievements, vast improvements are needed especially in professional soccer. There need to be more professional and semi-professional teams, offering more and better-paying jobs to American players. Refereeing needs to improve as well.
USSF’s failure to understand the state of US soccer led it to hire the wrong sort of coach and to imagine that better training methods and a devotion to “better” soccer, whatever that might be, are the ways to still more successful teams.
We are now facing that ugly prospect that the US national team has regressed. Teams that the US used to beat regularly have improved and we have not. We seem to have the wrong coach, the wrong players, the wrong style of play.
Firing the current coach is probably not a bad idea. He certainly deserves it. But what is really needed is a change in USSF. We need to discard the current leadership that has demonstrated that it doesn’t understand the state of US soccer or what should be done to improve it.
Perhaps it’s time for USSoccer to rebalance its portfolio, at least to some degree, to increase pay and bonuses for the women and offer them more support. At this stage, I’d rather support the women, and see our girls continue to develop. I don’t feel like whatever we’re doing on the men’s side and in terms of our youth development for boys is working. I’m frustrated, but we know that the women win, they hustle, they play as a team, and represent the U.S. in the best possible fashion. Very disappointed in how the men played during this tournament.
Of course it’s not working. Nothing will happen until kids – millions of them, very young – take matters into their own hands, practice incessantly almost from birth, and change the course. USSF coaches can only hone talent, they can’t conceive it. I don’t see this changing, so the sooner we accept this fact, the sooner we’ll all find peace enjoying our national team for what it is, just pretty good.