🇵🇦 The moment when it's OK to lose your cool
PLUS: The Jimenez/Gimenez duo works pretty well for Mexico + thoughts on León's boot from the Club World Cup
Panama manager Thomas Christiansen lost his cool.
Soft-spoken, well-dressed and respectful, the Denmark native never gives in to the pull of unrestrained emotion. But asked after the match what he was doing while most of his team was celebrating with Thierry Henry on the CBS desk, having just scored a goal to beat the United States 1-0 in the Concacaf Nations League semifinal, and Christiansen had to admit it.
“I don’t know what I did,” he said. “I think I went on the field?”
The reaction that saw him concede to the joy of advancing past the United States, of becoming the first Central American team to make the Nations League final, he may never remember. The goal, though, he’ll never forget.
Cecilio Waterman, a 33-year-old journeyman forward currently playing for Coquimbo Unido in Chile, beat U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner - sending all the Americans based at big clubs out of the Nations League in the process.
“I’m super happy. I think the guys played an amazing game. The only way you can beat the United States is with that commitment, discipline, tactical order, and after that luck has to be with you,” Christiansen said. “And it’s with us right now.”
Yes, Panama needed chance to smile upon it. The Josh Sargent shot that went off a leg and onto the post. The bounces going right as Coco Carrasquilla found Waterman. The decision by U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino to hold changes for an extra time that would never come.
Yet, Panama also made its own luck. The staunch defense, even missing fullback Michael Amir Murillo to injury and Fidel Escobar to suspension, that closed off space for the Americans to work in. The job done by Christian Martinez, staying back to support Cesar Blackman and make sure the U.S. couldn’t find space on the right side of Panama’s defense. The stops from goalkeeper Orlando Mosquera.
Panama’s confidence grew as the game went on, with Christiansen noting “The confidence you get, you transmit and when you see things are working the fluidity and communication for a player to instead of covering 15 meters just has to go 5, 6 meters made it so we had the chance to withstand 90 minutes at that intensity.”
Christiansen's level-headedness, broadcasting a message of calm to his team, provides a counter-balance for that intensity, the Panama squad’s willingness to go into a hard tackle, to jump onto a TV broadcaster’s set and zealously celebrate with one of the game’s greats.
“Honestly, this group deserves it,” Waterman said on the official broadcast, prior to his shirt swap with Henry during the Paramount+ post-match. “Panama is always going to be looked down upon, but we know what we have. It’s a beautiful group. We’ve grown a lot. And I’m honestly very happy for everything that has happened to us.”
Christiansen has started to earn a reputation for his success against Costa Rica, Panama’s top regional rival in Central America. Panama has lost just one of its last 11 against Costa Rica, including victories in Nations League and Gold Cup.
It’s time to study what he’s done against the U.S. as well. It’s not just the 1-0 victory Thursday. Panama also beat the U.S. 2-1 in the Copa América group stage, the result that was the beginning of the end for Gregg Berhalter’s squad’s hopes to get to the knockout phase. Before that, it was a shootout victory that sent Panama to the 2023 Gold Cup final.
The Central Americans lost that match against Mexico, but now set up a rematch of that match in the same stadium where the first showdown took place.
Should Panama lift its first trophy since the Copa Uncaf 2009, Christiansen may once again find himself losing control of his emotions, running onto the field and celebrating his team’s success.
Double Jimenez, double the fun
Mexico manager Javier Aguirre hinted during the week that rather than select a starting forward between Raul Jimenez and Santi Gimenez, he might just pick both.
That’s exactly what he did against Canada, and the decision paid off. While neither of the goals in the double Raul scored to push Mexico to a 2-0 win and a second consecutive CNL final were set up by his strike partner, Mexico had several chances come from the interplay between the veteran and the rising star.
“I started thinking it wouldn’t be fair to leave one of them out and started to think over. I didn’t have doubts about their finishing, but the build-up,” Aguirre said Friday. “They felt good, and fortunately the team did well. I think it’s a good formula. I decided to take advantage of the players’ form.”
Whether it was thanks to form or fortune, life became easier for Mexico just moments after the opening whistle. Jimenez converted off a deflected shot from Roberto Alvarado. Things got easier still when what looked like a convincing penalty shout for Canada a few minutes later wasn’t whistled.
Raul took care of the rest, scoring a stunner of a free kick to double Mexico’s advantage just when it felt like the balance of the game was shifting in Canada’s favor.
There were moments that weren’t easy, though, and El Tri managed the game well - looking like the veteran team dominating the region that they were a decade ago and not the timid team terrified of making a mistake that has shown up often in the last several years.
“It was a really even game, and maybe the scoreboard doesn’t show the difference. Canada pushed us to the limit - like last time - they pressed us. I thought they’d stop in the second half but they continued, continued, continued.”
As with past meetings between the North American squads, it was a physical contest. TUDN’s commentators joked after a harsh foul from Alistair Johnston when the Canada defender already was on a yellow card that his staying negated the no-call on the penalty.
Ultimately, the referee didn’t decide the game, though. Raul Jimenez did - as did Aguirre with a clever lineup that worked well together and has some El Tri fans fondly reminiscing about the glory days of his first two tenures.
Mexico isn’t near that level yet, but they look much closer than they did in previous major tournaments.
León out of the Club World Cup
Since November, we’ve been wondering how Pachuca and León both would take part in FIFA’s Club World Cup when the fact that teams both are owned by Grupo Pachuca pretty clearly runs afoul of the competition’s regulations.
Today, three months before the tournament kicks off, FIFA announced it has booted León from the tournament. “FIFA has determined that Club León will be removed from the competition, with the club to be admitted as a replacement to be announced in due course,” part of its statement reads.
Who should that replacement be? Honestly, León. The shared ownership isn’t good, but León won the CCC on the field without any boost from Pachuca - and vice versa.
So, we can look to the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ Confederations ranking1, where Club América is the top team not qualified (just ahead of the Philadelphia Union).
There has been chatter that FIFA’s regulations do not allow more than two teams from the same country into the competition.
The way the rule reads, it could be interpreted as only allowing two clubs per country when using that mechanism, which is yet to be utilized. The fact is, “the event of a club winning two or more editions of the confederations premier club competition,” did not occur. But also “an exception in cases where more than two clubs from the same country win the confederation’s premier club competition” also can be made.
If Alajuelense, one spot ahead of Violette of Haiti, does sit as the top team outside of the U.S. or Mexico.
What’s inexplicable about this is how it took this long for FIFA to make a ruling. As of writing, fans still can access the León page on the official Club World Cup website and BUY TICKETS FOR MATCHES supposedly featuring León.
León itself brought in James Rodriguez, convinced Andres Guardado to un-retire and has focused other resources on this tournament. They always knew a decision like this could be coming, with Jesus Martinez even nodding at the possibility of selling the club. So, my sympathy for them is limited.
For León fans who booked flights to see their team in the U.S.? Who budgeted for tickets and rented cars and found hotel rooms? My sympathy for them is enormous - though perhaps they’ll be able to offload some of those tickets and rentals to a team with a bigger fan base.
Elsewhere
For Bleacher Report: The winners and losers of the USMNT’s Concacaf Nations League semifinal against Panama
I hung out with my friend The Colorful Kit for his Mexico post-match pod
I went on Morning Footy and enjoyed chatting Concacaf on the Golazo Network. Should have some sort of link for you soon on Bluesky and/or Twitter.
Note this is different from Concacaf’s own ‘Club Ranking Index’, currently topped by América but at the time of the Club World Cup regulations being published topped by the Columbus Crew. That one also sees the Vancouver Whitecaps as the top team outside the U.S. and Mexico and Herediano as the best Costa Rican teams.
This is just another example of how FIFA under Gianni Infantino is less competent. Seriously, he makes me miss Sepp Blatter. They just keep making dumbshit little stupid mistakes, on top of selling the World Cup to Saudi Arabia.