OK, we’re going to wrap this blog up now. Thanks for reading, and well done to USA for coming back to draw. Good night.
Here’e Michael Bradley:
Bedoya played a great ball. Great to have him back on the field, and made a great play on the goal.
It’s always tricky when a team has already qualified. But at the end of the day, we take our seven points, and now all our focus goes to our quarter-final in Baltimore.
The substitutes probably made a difference for USA: Dempsey held it up well and provided some physicality, and Yedlin hared down the right and pushed Erick Davis back. Bradley did well for the goal, and it was nicely set up by Alejandro Bedoya. Great reflex save from Guzan on Camargo, too.
USA win Group A with seven points, Haiti go through in second, and Panama wait.
Jurgen Klinsmann is all smiles. No victory for USA, but they came back well to draw, and Panama will have to wait to find out if they’ll be in the quarter-finals. Decent game, not a classic, but a draw a fair result.
Full-time: Panama 1-1 USA
The players look done. But that’s Cooper from distance – not powerful enough to trouble Guzan. And that’s it!
90 min + 2: Perez with a strike! Straight at Guzan. Not long now.
90 min + 1: It looks like the wind has been taken out of Panama’s sails: they haven’t created anything of note for some time. And now Yedlin for Zardes, but his cross is just too long for Bradley. Three minutes of added time.
89 min: Camargo goes down the left, but Alvarado comes over and does well. Panama try again with Arroyo, but that’s a foul by the substitute. Needless.
87 min: Hilarious handball by Harold Cummings, and that’s a yellow card and a USA free-kick about 25 yards from goal. Dempsey with it … into the wall.
86 min: Six minutes for Panama to find a winner. They could, I suppose, go through as one of the two best-placed third-placed teams, but they’ll want to be entirely sure by finishing second. Final change for Panama: Quintero off, Abdiel Arroyo on.
Updated
84 min: Brooks is off target with a header, and now Beckerman is over on the touchline with a bloody nose. USA down to 10 men for now! Davis’s ball in, and Brooks again with the clearance!
82 min: Dempsey again tries to go for goal, but Panama do just about enough to shovel it clear. USA now coming on strong. By the way, it’s 10.30 at night, and 90F at pitch level. How hot is a Turkish bath?!
80 min: Oh, Clint! Johnson found him free on the edge of the box, but Dempsey’s touch let him down, and Panama hacked clear. Big chance.
79 min: Brooks again with a headed clearance: he’s been much better this second half. But Panama aren’t done, moving USA around until Camargo’s touch lets him down on the edge of the box. A shame: that was a good period of possession.
77 min: Beckerman shoots left-footed from distance, and that’s just wide! Penedo looked worried: that was close.
76 min: Just about headed clear, Panama break, and that is an excellent save by Guzan! Nurse went down the right, and Camargo arrived late to meet his cross, but Guzan got down very smartly to his left to prevent it sneaking inside the post. Well played.
75 min: What I like about Bradley is that he’s prepared to run beyond the forwards. That’s such a useful skill for a midfielder, and makes him so difficult to mark. Corner from USA, and the big man Brooks comes up from the back.
73 min: Camargo shoots from the edge of the box. Save by Guzan.
72 min: Fans howl and holler after Zardes goes down in the box, but I think the goalkeeper Penedo got the ball there. No penalty, and the right decision.
70 min: Davis puts in his first bad ball of the night, but Panama have not buckled after that equaliser. They need to win, and they’re pushing USA back. Roberto Nurse replaces Tejada for Panama, and now Bedoya does hobble off. Aron Johannsson is in.
69 min: Bedoya is struggling. He caught one very late in the first half, but he’s noticeably limping.
67 min: USA take a breather and knock it around in defence.
Greg Kutylo’s father-in-law is not impressed. Greg writes:
So many heavy touches by the U.S. The Gold Cup isn’t catching on because the team is full of cloggers with concrete feet. My soccer mad Chilean father in law is visiting, and he will watch almost any match (2nd division of Paraguay or something equally obscure). He said “enough of the USA, how boring” at the half. Now he’s reading a book in the other room.
Updated
66 min: John Strong on commentary reckons the heat and humidity is getting to the players. I wonder whether USA look a little heavy-legged: since the goal, they haven’t really pressed and pressured, and Panama have come back into it.
65 min: Davis has put in three or four really excellent crosses from the left, but that’s a really good header from John Brooks, facing his own goal. Fine defending.
64 min: Panama have pushed USA back here, but Tejada can’t control Godoy’s fizzed pass. Now Perez has a go from outside the box, but Guzan saves.
62 min: Change for Panama: Valentin Pimentel off, Miguel Camargo on. A straight swap on the right of midfield.
61 min: There’s still plenty of space for Panama here, especially since Alvarado and Brooks are on yellow cards. Now Perez comes clear down the right, but that’s an excellent covering tackle from Brooks! It was a heavy touch from Perez, but Brooks timed it well inside the box.
58 min: The crowd is up, and Panama need to get on the ball and calm things down. Davis’s cross is headed away by Alvarado, and then his second ball in is too long.
“Now there’s some rhythm,” purrs Alexi Lalas.
56 min: Dempsey and Zardes combined well, and when the ball broke to Bedoya on the left, suddenly USA had flooded the box. Bedoya crossed, Bradley arrived late, and couldn’t miss from five yards. A suspicion of offside on first glance, but he wasn’t. One each!
GOAL! Panama 1-1 USA (Bradley 55)
There’s the equaliser! From the skipper!
53 min: Tejada is making a nuisance of himself, and forces a corner as Brooks gives an anguished look. He and Alvarado have been given the run-around, but Panama can’t profit from the dead ball.
By the way, have a look at this incredible picture of the Kansas City sunset:
Isn’t that just fabulous?
52 min: Bradley looks to pick out Yedlin, who’s started high on the right flank. Panama defend stoutly, and then break with Quintero down the left. Now Zardes rattles the crossbar with a shot on the turn! But he was coming back from an offside position, and he’s penalised.
49 min: Lovely link-up by Cooper and Pimentel down the Panama right, but Pimentel’s teasing ball in is well headed clear by Alvarado.
Here’s Colin Crumpton:
I’ve been thinking this for the entirety of the tournament... The diamond (really more of a squished diamond w/ wide midfielders far too wide and high) is an absolute mess. The USMNT have been far too open in the middle of pitch, allowing the likes of Haiti and now Panama to look like Barcelona in possession.
47 min: Well, that was a hilarious late attempt at a foul by Beckerman as Quintero got away, but the Panama man kept his feet, and the referee played advantage, which came to nothing. That should be a booking for Beckerman, and he’s lucky. Now this is a yellow for Alvarado, for an arm in the face of Perez. Both USA centre-backs booked.
46 min: And we’re back. That was lacklustre from USA in the first period, and they need to get going. And Zardes was almost in there! Mistake from Torres, but it just ran away from the USA man.
Klinsmann can stand this no longer, and he’s made two changes: Yedlin on for Morales, and Dempsey replaces Wondolowski.
Barrett Madden emails:
Ahhh, Concacaf! Always with the anti-US lopsided refereeing. It’d be different if we didn’t expect it before the start of the tournament.
It’s a conspiracy!
Anyone got any hints/advice/tactical suggestions? Your favourite kind of Fanta? Email me! Tweet me! Look me up in the Yellow Pages!
Brad Friedel makes an astute point: that was poor defending from USA for the Panama goal. Tejada did well, but Alvarado got turned far too easily, and Brooks reacted too slowly to block Perez’s run. “They haven’t covered themselves in glory so far,” says Friedel.
Half-time: Panama 1-0 USA
Alexi Lalas made the point that that 45 minutes wasn’t as bad as the 45 against Haiti, but Panama are a better side than Haiti, in my opinion, and they punished USA there, creating two or three good chances and fashioning a very good goal. Perez and Tejada are a seriously decent strike partnership, and they pierced USA’s central defence to open the scoring.
A couple of bad refereeing decisions for USA, but they’ve struggled in attack: only two shots in that half, and Wondolowski and Zardes haven’t really combined. The contrast with Panama’s front two is striking.
45min +2: Panama got lucky there: Wondolowski was away, but the linesman flagged for a non-existent foul. And that’s the half!
Landon Donovan’s Twitter feed: come for the sentimentality, stay for the jokes!
Yes, 45 seconds https://t.co/dqnnpAlA9X
— Landon Donovan (@landondonovan) July 14, 2015
45 min: Bradley’s free kick, looking for Brooks – but that’s an excellent clearing header from Ramon Torres. Two minutes of stoppage time.
43 min: Now a yellow card for Chandler for a tug on Quintero. And a caution for Godoy, who is absolutely cranky! He shouldn’t be: that was a clear foul, and Godoy will miss the quarter-final should Panama qualify. It’s getting hot!
42 min: Oooh, that was a close one: Bedoya ran through on to a long ball, and was clear! Cummings and Torres came back to challenge, and Cummings bumped Bedoya from behind, just outside the box. Oh, that was a bad decision: that was a clear foul! That could have been a red, easily, although Torres was also in the vicinity, but I can’t believe that wasn’t whistled by Roberto Garcia Orozco. Klinsmann is going bananas on the bench. Panama got lucky there.
Updated
39 min: That was naughty from Quintero on Bedoya, but no yellow card. Now Bedoya tries to go down the right, but Davis pummels it into touch. It’s just not happening for USA so far.
36 min: Alexi Lalas on commentary has just delivered a withering assessment of Gyasi Zardes’s performance so far: “Non-existent.” Wondolowski hasn’t done much more, to be honest.
35 min: Lovely link-up between the Panamanian front men, and that’s a deserved lead. Tejada accepted a pass with his back to goal, turned Alvarado much too easily in the box, and found Perez, who ran off Brooks to prod home from six yards. Game on!
Updated
GOAL! Panama 1-0 USA (Perez 34)
Perez! And that’s been coming!
33 min: Erick Davis has really made an impression down this left-hand side. And a free-kick in a dangerous position after handball by Morales, was it? Cooper, who plays with St Pauli, will take, but it’s hacked clear by a panicked USA defence.
31 min: Lovely reverse pass from Quintero sets Godoy away down the left, but that’s good cover from Alvarado, and the danger passes.
30 min: Slack from Beckerman, who’s usually so neat in possession, and Panama attack down the right. Now Davis with another excellent ball in, but Perez mistimes his jump! He got higher than Brooks, who seemed to be more interested in pushing Perez than trying to head it clear. That was a chance for Panama.
Updated
28 min: It’s been pretty even so far, and both teams have had chances. Blas Perez, incidentally, is third all-time in Gold Cup goals, with 10. Quiz question: who’s first, with 18?
26 min: The crowd at Sporting Park is making a fair old racket. Maybe they’ve gone delirious in the heat. Bedoya is penalised for handball, stopping a promising USA attack.
23 min: That was an odd sequence: I think it came off a USA head, and Guzan did well to claim it, but then he spilled it! It fell to Godoy, was it, and he smashed a shot from 10 yards on the turn that Guzan did really well to block. In sum: good, bad, very good from the Villa keeper.
22 min: Oh my! Pinball in the USA defence – and Guzan makes two excellent saves! Another corner. Panama on the front foot, but Guzan does well again.
22 min: Ooh, that was slack from Chandler: he got caught ball-watching, and suddenly Quintero was clear on the left. Bedoya did well to block the cross, but it’s a corner for Panama.
20 min: Bradley’s inswinging corner is behind, and that’s a shame, but that passage of play was much better from the hosts: more zing, more vim, more pep – more like it.
19 min: More good play from USA after excellent work from Timmy Chandler, winning the tackle and then releasing Zardes clear on the right. It’s a corner.
18 min: Bradley with a rocket from distance! Well saved from Penedo – it moved all over the place, and the goalie did well to parry it clear of danger. This game starting to heat up.
17 min: Oh, what a chance! Bedoya got in down the right-hand side, and he was in absolutely acres of space – where was Davis? He waited, and waited, … and no one made the run he wanted, so he went for goal, but his shot was weak, and Penedo saved with his feet. And now a yellow for Brooks for a tug as Panama counter-attacked! He’ll miss the quarter-final now.
Updated
14 min: Panama have passed it well, but USA haven’t imposed themselves. We haven’t seen much of Bradley so far.
13 in: Brooks mops up as Perez looks to run in behind. But then, under no pressure, Brooks blams it long and hard to no one in particular. A total waste.
11 min: That was a delicious ball in from Davis, and Tejada got in front to prod home, but he had started his run from an offside position, and it was the correct call.
9 min: Another free-kick for Panama, as Morales trips Quintero on the right-hand side. USA started slowly against Haiti – are they in a similarly sluggish mood tonight? Davis’s free–kick, inswinging, is touched past Guzan by Tejada! Goal? No! Offside!
Updated
8 min: Panama have started in sprightly fashion, and USA haven’t created much. Zardes’s pass for Wondolowski is too heavy, and Panama can build again.
6 min: Erick Davis strikes it into the wall. A waste.
Here’s Christopher Munden:
I‘ve heard some talk about the tournament, but with the group stages a formality, people will tune in when it gets to the business end of the competition. It was the same for the recent World Cup.
5 min: Bedoya bumps Tejada, and this is a good opportunity for Panama, about 25 yards from goal, in a central position.
4 min: Zardes is penalised for a late clip on Gomez. He’s already sweating prodigiously, like Robert Hays in Airplane.
3 min: Get this: USA have eliminated Panama in the past five straight Gold Cups. But the Panamanians have started well, fizzing it around, and Tejada is almost in. It just runs away from him.
And we're off!
1 min: Panama in all red, like Liverpool. Panama are maybe lacking in top quality. Also like Liverpool. Zing!
We’re almost ready. It’s 94F. Caliente!
The sun’s going down in KC. Time for the anthems, and Sporting Park looks pretty full: 21,000 or so.
polyethics44 (Polly Ethics?) has emailed in!
I live in New York New Jersey area what radio station is the USA Panama game on tonight
I don’t know, I’m afraid – but I do know a really great news website that will be carrying a live blog. Maybe you could follow it!
Brad Friedel is looking forward to seeing Brooks and Alvardo reacquaint themselves, Wynalda like Alejandro Bedoya, and Stuart Holden is salivating over Gyasi Zardes. Zardes really impressed against Haiti after coming on as sub. Jozy Altidore will be sweating.
Barrett Madden emails:
Don’t know about anyone else, but I’m watching every game.
Good on you.
This game was scheduled to start at 9.30pm ET, but it won’t: I guess because Haiti-Honduras finished late or something, but we’re looking at a 9.45pm start, at the earliest. Why are these games being scheduled so late? I’m calling Concacaf.
Here’s Klinsi:
We want to finish with three wins, and we want to build some more momentum for our team. We have to improve, and it gives the chance for some players to step on the field who haven’t made it yet.
Updated
Here’s a question for USA fans: is anyone actually bothered about the Gold Cup? I thought the success of the US women might have created a buzz for this tournament, but it doesn’t seem to have done so, and it feels like it’s being played under the radar. Is that an unfair analysis? Email me with your thoughts!
It’s six straight wins for USA against Panama, the last one a 2-0 friendly win in February. February? February. Just watching that World Cup qualifier in November 2013: such drama! Panama needed a win to face New Zealand in a playoff qualifier, and they were leading 2-1, until Zusi and then Johannsson turned it round in stoppage time. Panama looked stunned, Mexico went on to face the Kiwis, and went on to do what they always do at the World Cup: exit in the round of 16.
Eric Wynalda on Fox is looking forward to a “battle between John Brooks on Blas Perez”. Perez is a star for FC Dallas, and has a bundle of goals for the Panamanian national side. Is he the best Panamanian since Julio Dely Valdes?
Gyasi Zardes and Chris Wondolowski begin up front; Alexi Lalas is excited to see Zardes start. Brad Friedel says Panama can play, but they’re missing two big defensive players in Luis Henriquez and Adolfo Machado. They need a victory: can they do it?
Haiti did win that game against Honduras, so they move into second place on four points. Thus, ergo, and therefore, Panama need a win to go through: a draw, like the world in Pierce Brosnan’s worst James Bond film, is not enough.
Updated
Here’s JR in Illinois:
Dude, do you really think soccer should be played in this type of heat and humidity? It’s 93 freaking degrees in Kansas City. And worse than that, the dew point is 76. That makes for a heat index of 105. Mercy.
Yeah, that’s severe, isn’t it? Mercy indeed.
In the group’s other game, Haiti are on the brink of a fine victory over Honduras: they lead 1-0 through Duckens Nazon, and that would put them in pole position for the second qualification spot. Into stoppage time now.
I find it really annoying when the US soccer federation doesn’t publish the opposition lineup as well. There are two teams playing, you know!
Anyway, here’s the Panama lineup:
Penedo; Pimentel, Cummings, Torres, Davis; Gomez, Cooper, Quintero, Godoy; Perez, Tejada.
Updated
Here are some lineups:
#USMNT Starting XI vs. Panama: Guzan; Chandler, Alvarado, Brooks, Johnson; Bedoya, Beckerman, Bradley, Morales; Wondolowski, Zardes #USAvPAN
— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) July 14, 2015
I make that nine changes for the US from the team that beat Haiti 1-0. Guzan and Bradley started that game; everyone else is new.
Hello and welcome. It’s Monday night football of a different kind tonight: USA play Panama in their final Gold Cup group match in Kansas City, and, as per usual when they play USA, Panama need a win.
Two years ago, Panama lost 1-0 to USA in the final of the Gold Cup, and then there was that epic night in 2014 World Cup qualifying, when Panama had a playoff spot in their grasp, only to cough up late goals to Graham Zusi and Aron Johannsson. Is tonight about revenge? Maybe. But Panama need a win to be sure of qualification, while USA want a win because, well, they like winning. Kick-off is 9.30pm ET, 8.30pm CT, from Sporting Park – and you’d be mad to miss it.
Updated
Tim will be here shortly, in the meantime here’s the report from USA’s victory over Haiti:
Another long night for the USA, and another positive result thanks to a decisive Clint Dempsey intervention, but don’t let the fact that they’ve won their group with a game to spare fool you – Jürgen Klinsmann’s team beat Haiti by the thinnest of margins.Gold Cup 2015: USA 1-0 Haiti – as it happened USA make it two wins from two in the Gold Cup after edging past Haiti thanks to Clint Dempsey’s goal Read more
Dempsey’s winner, just after half-time, may have secured the result, but at the time it did little to alter the complexion of a game where Haiti’s speed on the counter and physical competitiveness in midfield troubled the USA all night.
After laboring to deal with the lively Hondurans and their flooding of midfield on Tuesday in Texas, the USA came into Friday night’s game expecting to face a disciplined Haiti team happy to play without the ball and set traps, as they’d showed in their 1-1 opener with Panama. And so it proved again in Massachusetts, at least before a tiring Haiti team began to allow the US more opportunities in the second half.
Klinsmann had introduced wholesale changes to face the Haitians. DeAndre Yedlin and Gyasi Zardes had raised some concerns with their reluctance to pinch in and support Kyle Beckerman and Michael Bradley in the midfield diamond against Honduras and neither young player started on Friday night.
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