🏆 Panama, wyd?, All even at Azteca & more from Thursday's WCQs
Two more matches left!
MEXICO CITY — While many fans in the region had their eyes here at the Estadio Azteca for perhaps the final World Cup qualification match between rivals Mexico and United States in quite some time, the drama (and the goals) took places in Central America.
There will be more drama. With two matchdays left, no one has clinched a spot in the top three, assuring automatic qualification to the World Cup. The playoff spot is very much up for grabs.
We’ll get to thoughts on the game I actually attended, but we start first with what we witnessed further south.
Uh…Panama?
This was supposed to be the easy one.
With a trip to the U.S. and a home fixture against first-place Canada looming, Panama needed maximum points from Thursday’s match against last-place Honduras.
That, uh, didn’t happen.
It all started well. Finishing is perhaps this team’s biggest weakness, and Rolando Blackburn got behind the Honduras back line and finished well in the 23rd minute.
But at the end of the match, it was 1-1 after a second-half goal from Kevin Lopez and later in the night Panama saw its hold on the playoff place slip away.
What went wrong?
“We lost our identity in the second half,” Panama center back Fidel Escober offered after the game. “We had to do what we were doing going into the game, building well out of the back.”
Instead, the moment got to Panama, even more after the Honduras goal in the 65th minute, provoking panic rather than a response.
“When they tied us, we had a lot of time ahead of us, but it seemed like we had to score on the next play or we weren’t getting the three points,” said Panama manager Thomas Christiansen, who said the loss was his responsibility. “We didn’t have the possession or the good mobility we’ve had in other matches.”
Everyone who spoke after the Panama game took pains to note that they don’t believe their campaign is over. Of course, they shouldn’t. It’s unlikely but even automatic qualification is still possible for Christiansen’s squad.
Panama even still controls its own destiny, at least according to my back-of-envelope math (correct me in the comments, I’m bad at math), six points from the last two game gets them in no matter what happens elsewhere.
But no one with any understanding of the region would say things didn’t get a whole lot tougher for Panama with Thursday’s draw. The 2018 World Cup participants may not be able to recover.
Canada gets Concacaf reminder
Canada is still going to top the table in World Cup qualification. It should be proud.
It would’ve been unthinkable a year ago for them to go on an undefeated run lasting so nearly throughout all three rounds.
And they’ve had tons of obstacles to overcome. They didn’t play a real home match until the third round because of Covid-19 travel protocols in Canada. They had to go to Haiti. They have, at various times, missed some of their players including superstar Alphonso Davies for a full six matches.
This version of the Canada men’s team knows what it means to play in the region.
And yet.
In a full stadium in Central America, with fireworks going off and fans chanting, the field apparently worse for the wear after hosting Coldplay (??), and a desperate team across from them, Canada got a reminder of just how tough this region can be.
“This is football,” Canada manager John Herdman told OneSoccer. “We went 17 games where we had the football gods with us; they weren’t with us tonight, and it’s made us hungry.”
Canada should be able to vanquish that hunger with a late-night poutine after celebrations Sunday in Toronto when they can get any result against the eliminated Jamaica to clinch a World Cup return. Hell, it’ll probably be more special than clinching on the road, especially after those aforementioned obstacles.
But Canada will be disappointed it didn’t manage Thursday’s match better.
I don’t want to make this all about the Mark-Anthony Kaye red, but it’s a factor. I think his first yellow is totally fair. The second feels soft to me, but it’s not necessary to toss your shoulder into the guy.
You didn’t see Canada players lower their heads and give up by any stretch. Against a goalkeeper that isn’t Keylor Navas, the Reds likely score in the 74th minute or on one of their three quality chances in the final 10 minutes of the match.
But it was Navas in goal, keeping the clean sheet. And Canada’s dream of an undefeated run through qualification was ended in a fashion like so many other Concacaf dreams have been dashed before.
Everyone leaves…what’s a word for not quite happy?
Mexico controlled the game, the U.S. had the better chances. Both managers liked those facts of Mexico and the United States’ 0-0 draw last night at the Estadio Azteca and also saw plenty they didn’t like.
Something else the rivals might not like? These teams still have a lot in common.
“Sometimes finishing has to do with calmness. We’ve lost this calm in the last 25 meters of the field, not just being able to score but also choosing the right pass or the time to dribble and take a defender on with confidence. It’s something we’ve got to recover,” Mexico manager Tata Martino said of his side’s inability to win the game despite its advantage in possession and total shots.
And here’s his counterpart, Gregg Berhalter: “Give Tata a lot of credit for the way he set his team up. I thought he gave our press a lot of trouble, and it also gave us a lot of information. We’ll enjoy looking at that tape.
“Overall, I’m disappointed not to score, but Ricardo (Pepi) laid a good ball off for Christian (Pulisic) in the first half and Jordan (Pefok) had a good chance as well.”
As the match wore on, it certainly felt like both managers accepted that a draw would be a good result in the table. It might not be what fans were hoping for from the “Clasico del Milenio” as Récord called it Thursday, but both squads took another step closer to seeing the “X” by their name in the standings and knowing preparation for Qatar can begin.
Of course, that task of getting to the World Cup is no guarantee, as the U.S. knows all too well.
But these managers also need to fine-tune their teams and make these consistent issues a distant memory by the time Qatar rolls around in November. Otherwise, all the work that goes into getting there may be spent for a trip that ends up lasting little more than three games.
A quick note on atmosphere: The Azteca certainly didn’t roar like it does at full capacity.
The Mexican federation is in a tough spot, but, while clumsy, the hype man yelling a pre-approved chant over the PA system covers whatever fans are doing. The Fan ID program still has kinks that need to be worked out (one newspaper I read this morning reported that in the 40th minute, they just shrugged and let people in without their QR code) and lines would’ve been horrendous had 35,000 more fans been trying to get in.
As it was, it was clearly better than the games with 2,000 and not as good as full capacity, especially because the federation wasn’t approving organized groups. It’s hard for even the fans spending big bucks in the suites to join in on songs and cheers if there aren’t people drumming, starting songs and waving flags.
You saw that Thursday, with the U.S. fans making themselves heard often during the game despite there obviously being far fewer of them.
All in all, there’s not the mystique around the stadium there was in the 1980s and 1990s. But time marches on. Things change. The federation needs to find a way to repair the relationship it has with its fans and to convince fans to support in a way that isn’t going to make things harder for both directors and the team.