EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – A wild 4-4 tie against six-time champion Mexico that clinched Group C was very much a dream result for Trinidad & Tobago. But now it’s back to reality for the Soca Warriors, who face Panama in a CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal Sunday at MetLife Stadium (4:30 pm ET, FOX Sports 1, Univision in USA and Sportsnet One in Canada).
“I think the past game against Mexico gave us a lot of confidence, however we see each game differently,” Columbus Crew SC and Trinidad & Tobago midfielder Kevan George said. “Panama can have a stellar game. We can’t just base it on our prior performances and try and predict the future. I think we’re prepared for Panama. We’re going to go in there and try to get a result.”
When Trinidad was last in the Gold Cup quarterfinals, Stephen Hart was only three weeks into his new job and didn’t get a chance to select his own players. This squad, Hart said, is very much in the mold of what he’d like to see. It’s a younger team, a bit more dynamic in the attacking third and they’ve proven that in the group stage.
While winning the group was a goal achieved, it wasn’t what the Soca Warriors ultimately set out to achieve.
“When we got together as a team we said what do we want to get out of the Gold Cup? We agreed we wanted to go one better than the quarterfinal and put ourselves in a semifinal where we can fight to be in a final,” Hart said. “We set realistic goals to achieve and should we be successful tomorrow, the dream becomes bigger.”
After playing the United States to a 1-1 draw in both teams' final match in Group A at Sporting Park on Monday, Panama had to wait a day to find out if it had qualified for the knockout stage as one of the top two third-place teams.
Trinidad & Tobago and Panama have met just once in Gold Cup play – a 2-2 draw during the group stage in 2005. In their last meeting, Los Canaleros beat Trinidad 1-0 in March.
“We have to play way better,” Panama coach Hernan Dario Gomez said. “I’m very confident the team, game by game, has gotten better. I think Trinidad has also gotten better and they’ve been getting confidence in this tournament as well. It’s going to be a hard challenge for both of us.”
Gomez said it is important for Panama, which conceded a second-half equalizer in all three draws during the group stage, to maintain its style and identity in this match. And if the game is decided by penalty kicks, the Colombian is confident in Jaime Penedo of the LA Galaxy, one of the region’s best goalkeepers.
“He’s a great goalkeeper in all aspects,” Gomez said. “He’s a leader, he’s really fast. He’s very important, especially for us. It’s not a guarantee, but we always get an advantage with the player who takes the first penalty.”
