Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s a quick preview of today’s game courtesy of our friends at the Associated Press:
With two games remaining in World Cup qualifiers, the United States are in a showdown against Panama in Orlando, knowing that victory in their final home game will be crucial before they head to the finals.
Sound familiar?
The USA defeated the Panamanians 4-0 in October 2017 when Christian Pulisic scored the first goal and assisted the second. Four days later, the Americans needed only a draw as they suffered a 2-1 loss at Trinidad and Tobago, a low point in American football that ended a streak of seven straight World Cup appearances.
“Every game is associated with pressure, different pressure, and of course we feel that,” said goalkeeper Zack Steffen on Saturday. “We’re aware of the emotions, our emotions that go into it, and it’s just a matter of putting that on the back burner and going out there and playing the game that we’ve been playing our entire lives.”
Canada leads the Concacaf qualifiers with 25 points and the USA are second with 22 points, ahead of Mexico on goal difference. Costa Rica is fourth at 19 and Panama is fifth at 18. The top three nations qualify for this year’s World Cup, and fourth place advances to a playoff against the Oceanian champions, likely New Zealand.
The USA can beat Costa Rica on Sunday if they don’t win in El Salvador, or draw if Los Ticos lose. A US draw would guarantee no worse than a place in the playoffs. With a plus-nine goal difference to Costa Rica’s plus-two, a win would position the US to travel to Costa Rica to avoid at most a one-sided defeat.
“It’s really important not to roll over,” said US coach Gregg Berhalter. “I know there are similarities to last time, but we’re looking ahead. I don’t think this is a group looking back. We acknowledge what happened in the past. It’s part of who we are as a US men’s national team player and program. We recognize that, but we have to go our own way and tomorrow is a good time to do so.”
Goalkeeper Matt Turner, right-back Sergino Dest, centre-back Chris Richards and midfielders Weston McKennie and Brenden Aaronson are injured, backup right-back DeAndre Yedlin and winger Tim Weah are suspended and No 3 right-back Reggie Cannon is out due to Covid-19. Shaq Moore was brought in from Spain to meet the team in Orlando and looked likely to start at right-back.
The USA pulled off Thursday’s 0-0 draw with Mexico at altitude in Mexico City when the Americans had the better chance. The emotional high point of a home win over El Tri in November was followed by a shaky 1-1 draw in Jamaica for the USA.
“It was just a completely different atmosphere and we knew it was going to be a tough game, an ugly game and something we just had to get through,” said Steffen. “This time I think we got a point at Azteca, all the energy and emotion that went into there, we didn’t go too high, we didn’t go too low. We’re coming back to Orlando where we’re all focused just to stay in the moment.”