Panama City, Panama (March 28, 2017)– The USMNT came away with a draw against Panama, which was a fair result on the night. The game was as sloppy and physical as you would expect, with a momentary flash of brilliance providing the USMNT with a goal. The 1-1 draw leaves USA in fourth place in the Hexagonal Standings, with six games left to play.
USMNT Comes Away With a Point on the Road Against Panama
Coming off the 6-0 demolition of a solid Honduras team on Friday night, the anticipation for the next match was through the roof. The USMNT were without Geoff Cameron and John Anthony Brooks for tonight’s match, leaving the back line in relative disarray. Graham Zusi made the start at right back, while Tim Ream made the start in place of Brooks.
The return of Jermaine Jones meant a pairing with Michael Bradley in the midfield. That experiment didn’t really work. It worked about as well as a Bradley/Jones midfield pair worked during their time under Klinsmann. With so many players stretched and playing out of position, it gave Panama tons of room to get on the ball and run at the backline.
It was the USMNT that struck first, with a play almost seemingly from nothing. In the 38th minute, Jones tried to release Pulisic down the right wing, but Felipe Baloy got to the ball first. His careless touch gave the ball to Pulisic who then weaved his way around Baloy and Roman Torres before slotting the ball back to Clint Dempsey, who scored his fourth goal in the last two games.
Incredible hold up play for #PuliSICK and Dempsey flies in for the GOAL! 1-0 #USMNT pic.twitter.com/D6hXUqozFY
— The American Outlaws (@AmericanOutlaws) March 29, 2017
Panama scored less than five minutes later, when a long throw wasn’t cleared properly by Tim Ream. Someone failed to follow Gabriel Gomez, who got onto the rebound and fired a nice shot past Howard to equalize the match.
A couple of half chances for both sides were about as close as either got to scoring the rest of the way. Tim Howard made an incredible save in the final minutes to help preserve the 1-1 draw. Currently, the US sits fourth in the standings for the CONCACAF Hexagonal Series. With four points and six games to go, the US is starting to put itself into “Must win” territory. But at the moment, they would end up playing either Australia or Uzbekistan in a playoff for one of the final World Cup spots.
