CONCACAF
Panama made history by defeating the USMNT
The team managed by Thomas Chistiansen defeated the United States 1-0 and they are now in third place in the World Cup qualifying standings in CONCACAF.
Against all odds, Panama defeated the United States men’s national team with Anibal Godoy scoring in the 54th minute at the Estadio Rommel Fernández on Sunday evening. This was a crucial victory for the home side because with the three points obtained they are now in third place with eight points, tied with the US, in the World Cup qualifiers.
Historic win for Panama
Before Sunday's match, both sides had faced each other 23 times across all-competitions and the United States had only lost once, in the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup campaign. So no one expected that the ‘golden generation' would have any trouble defeating Panama on the road to stay atop the round-robin tournament.
Also this was the first defeat for the USMNT in 2021 and their manager, Gregg Berhalter, made a lot of changes to the starting XI on Sunday night and he explained why: “If we had played the same players as the last game [2-0 win against Jamaica last week], I am not sure we would have positioned ourselves to win again on Wednesday [against Costa Rica].”
Berhlater does not blame the players ‘lack of effort’
“Now it doesn’t look like the next choice [changing the starting XI], but I think we’ll have to wait until Thursday,” said Berhalter after the 1-0 defeat against Panama. “The conditions that we’re dealing with here with the travel, with the weather, made it complicated … And the good thing is, we’re still in second place, right? That’s the good thing. We have the most goals scored and one of the least amount of goals allowed. So our goal is to go into Wednesday’s game and get three points."