CARSON, Calif. – Panama's rise among CONCACAF's elite nations, which nearly climaxed with a berth in last year's World Cup, hasn't gone unnoticed, certainly not by the US men's national team.
The Yanks have been in several tight battles with Los Canaleros in recent years, are most impressed with their evolution the past decade into a strong soccer nation, and acknowledge it isn't going to be easy when they face off in Sunday's friendly at StubHub Center (4 pm ET; ESPN, UniMas, UDN).
“I think it's become a tough game,” US striker Jozy Altidore said this week. “They're very athletic, and if we're not careful, we could maybe not get a result in this game. We need to be on our toes, understand this is a team that's going to come with a lot of emotion, and play to win the game. We have to make sure we're on our toes.”
Panama, which traditionally embraced baseball over soccer, have climbed among Costa Rica and Honduras as Central American powerhouses. They have reached two CONCACAF Gold Cup finals, falling to the US on penalty kicks in 2005 and in a 1-0 decision two years ago, and were on the verge of going to Brazil, with Mexico staying home, until conceding stoppage-time goals to Graham Zusi and Aron Johannsson to drop their qualifying finale to the US in November 2013, the most recent meeting between the sides.
“Over the last six, seven, eight years, you could see Panama getting stronger and stronger in our region, and they confirmed that in the last World Cup qualifying cycle,” Klinsmann said during Saturday's pregame news conference at StubHub Center. “If it wasn't for us, you know, they would have gone to Brazil. Unfortunately, in the last two minutes for them, things ended up the wrong way.
“But you can see that they are very hungry, that they are eager to make it, to break through, [they have] a very, very good pool of young players coming through – they confirmed that [as runner-up in last month's] Under-20 World Cup qualifying – and so there's a lot of respect from our end.”
Panama has developed, under Julio Dely Valdes and now with Colombian Hernan Dario Gomez at the helm, a deep pool of players boasting tremendous athleticism, strength, size and skill. They're a difficult matchup for the US.
“They have always a good back four, they're physical, too, and in front they have skillful players and are very good with the ball,” defender Jermaine Jones noted. “You have to play 100 percent. It's a friendly, but we know the CONCACAF games are always tough. These countries, they want to beat us.”
Panama has on its roster Sunday just four players who saw action in the World Cup qualifier – LA Galaxy goalkeeper Jaime Penedo, FC Dallas forward Blas Perez, Colorado Rapids forward Gabriel Torres and Venezuela-based midfielder Marcos Sanchez – but Gomez has included six players from the team that beat the US at the CONCACAF U-20 qualifiers last month in Jamaica, including tournament Golden Boot winner Luis Pereira.
“They're bringing players through the pipeline that are hungry, that are physical, that are able to go high-tempo, but also that are inspirational,” Klinsmann said. “They're technically very gifted young playyers. ... They have a very competitive group here, and they, obviously, probably, have a little bit still in their stomach to [answer for the World Cup qualifying defeat] – that was really a disaster for them.
“It will be a good challenge for us, it will be a good benchmark for us. ... I think they deserve really a compliment [for] what they've done the last couple of years.”
