La Marea Roja once again meet the USA in the Gold Cup knockout stages, having been defeated by their Northern neighbors in the 2005 final, and once again in the 2007 quarters. It certainly won’t be an easy task for the Americans, as Panama has played well over the course of the tournament, losing narrowly to Guadeloupe despite dominating the final stages, battling Mexico (literally) to a draw, and crushing Nicaragua. This performance makes our World Cup failure even more tough to take, as surely Panama could have done some damage in the final round. But alas.

While this US team is young, they are dangerous, with the likes of Holden, Rogers and even Davy Arnaud turning in some good performances. I am going to go ahead and predict the upset however. Blas Perez will get the first, and with the US pushing to find an equalizer, Tejada will get the second, for a 2-0 upset.

Anyone else have predictions?

Highlights

Panama 4 Nicaragua 0

Guadeloupe 2 Panama 1

So while the Panamanian national side won’t be travelling to South Africa in a year and a half, they can console themselves with a UNCAF Nations Cup title and an appearance in this summers Gold Cup, a tournament where they performed very well in the 2007 edition.

Despite having to come up against three sides who are already into the final round of CONCACAF qualifying (Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica), Panama was able to squeeze the title after a dramatic penalty shoot out with the Ticos. The Costa Ricans had pounded us 3-0 in the group stages, so complacency may have been a factor, but Gary Stempel’s men could have hardly cared less as they went back to Panama City with the trophy.

The semifinals saw La Marea Roja dispatch hosts Honduras, while the second semi saw one of the most bizarre finishes you will ever see in a football match. After two Salvadoran players had been red carded in the first half, three more went down injured. With no substitutions, the match was awarded to Costa Rica. Very strange indeed. So I’m guessing that may have distracted them going into the final, so thanks for that El Salvador.

Here are some highlights of a few of Panama’s matches:

Group Stage vs Costa Rica

And the Final vs Costa Rica

The long and short of it is in the many layered world of CONCACAF qualifying, Panama ended up having to play a home and home series versus El Salvador. Simple enough, loser goes home, winner moves on to the next group stage. Now to those of you more familiar with the European or South American version of qualifying, this may seem a bit extreme. Two matches and that’s it if you lose? Yup, that’s how we do it over here, at least in the early stages.

Let’s get something clear right now; Panama got straight up shafted in the draw for ‘Phase 2′ as they call this round of qualifying. While Panama awaited with a bye, El Salvador warmed up with a 16-0 aggregate drubbing of Anguilla in Phase 1. By getting the bye, Panama’s last competitve fixture was their Gold Cup loss to the US in 2007. They had a few friendlies, but nothing that would properly prepare them for the cauldron of San Salvador (where they lost 3-1 to be eliminated). My beef is with the draw. El Salvador? Easily the strongest team coming out of Phase 1. Not even close. And who did some of the other seeded teams get from Phase 1? USA got Barbados (9-0 aggregate win), Jamaica got the Bahamas (13-0 aggregate win), Mexico got Belize (9-0 aggregate win)…..you get my drift. I’m not making excuses but to draw El Salvador was a nightmare that came true. We can moan as much as we want about the format (180 minutes and thats it? Campaign done?), and the draw (toughest team by a country mile) but we can’t escape the fact that the two legs were more than winnable, and we just didn’t get the job done.

Next focus is on the Gold Cup then.

I’ll be back with more on Panamanian players abroad, and the domestic league soon.