The Panama Game was a major test for this USMNT generation – and they failed

We’ll get to the Panama match in a moment, but first think back to December 2022.

The United States men’s national team had just been eliminated from the World Cup by the Netherlands, losing 3-1 in the round of 16. A nation was searching for answers: why couldn’t Gregg Berhalter’s side get the job done?

“If you look at the difference between the two teams; for me there was an attacking finishing quality that we are missing a little bit,” Berhalter said of the second-youngest under-32 side in that tournament. “It’s normal. We have a very young group and they are going to catch up.”

Oh, youth. There is nothing more exciting in football than the concept of potential; the promise that no matter how good a player or team is now, you just have to wait until they find their sea legs. With experience are supposed to come the intangibles that complete an athletic skill set. These are often the qualities that make a good player a great one: an erudite reading of the game or an otherworldly ability to anticipate the opponent’s next move, to name a few.

Still, it can be a disappointing silver lining to fixate on after a team is eliminated from a World Cup. Those only come around once every four years and, furthermore, there is no guarantee that any player, let alone a collective of them, will have squatter rights to national team places as younger alternatives rise through the ranks.

At some point, an individual or team must demonstrate that the proverbial “learning moments” from past hardships have resonated and will lead to better decisions thereafter.

Which brings us to Thursday night in Atlanta.

For fifteen minutes, the USMNT was up for the challenge. Panama represents the kind of enemy that Berhalter’s side would welcome under these circumstances. In this all-American edition of the Copa America, ostensibly the CONMEBOL (South America) Championship, you’d think it would be better to face a CONCACAF rival you regularly play against than someone from another confederation .

After the final whistle, when his team had suffered a 2–1 defeat, Berhalter and his players repeatedly cited their familiarity with Panama. They knew Panama was a team that would play with chippiness on every play. They knew what Panama was about and knew what approach they would take in hopes of shocking the tournament hosts.

It begs the question: if you knew where the opponent would be are fall, why did you end up getting caught in a trap of your own creation?

Since taking over in 2018, one of the hallmarks of Berhalter’s USMNT tenure has been his ability to thwart, overcome and ultimately run laps with Mexico. For decades, these two teams have fought for supremacy in the CONCACAF balance of power. As countries such as Costa Rica and Canada experienced strong development this century, their success was contextualized in relation to the region’s twin powers.

The framing does a disservice to the rest of CONCACAF, a kind of football classism that builds on past pedigree and fame surrounding a country’s best players. The nature of a group draw, where each team gets its next three opponents, inevitably fixates on the perceived ‘toughest’ opponent in the three matches, regardless of their place in the queue. So if you’re focused on a match against Marcelo Bielsa’s high-flying Uruguay at the end of the group, you risk overlooking the teams you’re less afraid of.

Teams like Panama.

Even after watching the climax of Tim Weah’s red card violation in the 18th minute twelve times (or perhaps special after watching it so many times), it’s hard to understand his decision making. Before and after the match, the United States emphasized that it knew Panama would use the dark arts to wrestle control of the game.

After assessment, Tim Weah receives a red card for this contact 🟥 pic.twitter.com/phw8bSzdKR

— FOX Football (@FOXSoccer) June 27, 2024

Tim Weah is sent away! 😱

The player from the United States gets a red card for violent behavior 🟥

Big moment in this game… pic.twitter.com/WEmV5B9DKt

— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) June 27, 2024

The thing is, this wasn’t one of those cases. It wasn’t a response to a scything tackle or a slashing elbow behind the referee’s back. It was retaliation for an otherwise unremarkable off-ball push between a defender ready for a challenge and an eager forward. That this was the series of events that allowed Panama to play with a man advantage for over 70 minutes? It undermines the claim that we ‘know’ what to expect.

Well, maybe that’s unfair. You know what’s coming and you make a plan for it. This last part is of greater importance.

(Hector Vivas/Getty Images)

It is fair to say that the gamesmanship the United States claimed to expect did indeed materialize.

Chief among the examples was Cesar Blackman’s challenge in the 12th minute, with the Panama player crashing into a defenseless Matt Turner in the air without making a serious nod to the ball. Goalkeeper Turner suffered a knee injury, which may have limited his mobility when Blackman put the equalizer into the net just fourteen minutes later.

Of course, Blackman escaped the collision without seeing a yellow card, but that’s another story.

In a cruel twist, the player who looked set to bring the ‘attacking finishing quality’ Berhalter craved in 2022 did his bit. Even after Weah’s red card and before Blackman’s goal, Folarin Balogun opened the scoring with the kind of effort that only a special striker could convert with confidence.

(Hector Vivas/Getty Images)

The USMNT fought valiantly in the second half after Berhalter made a trio of adjustments to replace Turner with a new goalkeeper, withdraw a midfielder to add another defender and swap defensive midfielders to ensure stability. In theory, a 1-1 draw would have done wonders for the home side, putting them on four points and Panama on one, with one match each remaining.

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Ultimately, Panama’s extensive possession (74%, or 72% when only touches in each attacking third were included) gave them enough time to turn one point into three. As Christian Pulisic put it succinctly after the match: “It’s not that easy to keep the ball” when you play with one man less. Panama created the best chance of the match in the 80th minute and did not waste it.

Weah’s teammates and coach were quick to say the Juventus man was contrite after the match, saying he had apologized for his action and the disadvantage it caused. It looks like he’ll soon get another chance (be it in the knockouts or after this tournament) to put things right – as others of this generation including Gio Reyna, Weston McKennie and Sergino Dest have done after their own incidents on and off the field. .

For now, however, the damage has been done. Weah’s ill-advised move gave Panama an advantage it may not have needed, but which it certainly enjoyed. Tyler Adams called Weah’s foul a “lesson” to think about for the future. Pulisic assured us that Weah will “learn from it”.

Haven’t we heard this before? Given how infrequently the USMNT can schedule friendlies against teams outside of CONCACAF, is there any excuse left for not having some level of mastery over the intricacies of playing rivals within your confederation?

How can a team expect to outwit Uruguay, or Brazil or Colombia, in a potential quarter-final – not to mention the wider field at a World Cup – if it often falls victim to the opponents it knows best?

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(Top photo: Hector Vivas/Getty Images)