Michael Bradley on target as off-color USA claim point against Panama

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jul/14/usa-draw-panama-gold-cup

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The USA ended their Gold Cup qualifying stage in much the same fashion as the rest of the campaign had proceeded so far – finding a way to get a result against notionally inferior opposition, but not before offering Panama plenty of chances to take something from the game.

Related: Gold Cup 2015: Panama 1-1 USA – as it happened

On a brutally hot evening in front of a noisily partisan Kansas City crowd, a wide open second half saw the USA recover a 1-0 half-time deficit via a 54th minute Michael Bradley goal, before seeing out a 1-1 draw, with both sides pushing for a winner late on.

With Haiti winning earlier in the evening, Panama found themselves dropping to third place and awaiting results in other groups to see if they can qualify as one of the best third-placed teams, while the USA already knew they would be playing in their quarter final in Baltimore this Saturday, having already won the group.

Panama can only blame themselves for finding themselves in this position, ending the evening having dropped a 1-0 lead for the third successive game, after taking the lead through a Blas Perez run into the six-yard box to poke home a Luis Tejada cross in the 34th minute. It capped a first half where Panama were often on the front foot against a heavily rotated US team.

It was a period that saw John Brooks pick up his second yellow card of the tournament while trying to hold the center of the US defense firm – he will now miss the quarter final, though he did bolster his longer term credentials somewhat with a perfectly timed challenge on the dangerous Perez as the striker raced into the US box around the hour mark. Though it could also be argued that Brooks owed his team mates that after being slow to make a recovery in the build up to the Perez goal.

The USA had started the game by giving Alfredo Morales and Alejandro Bedoya starts in the wide midfield positions and giving Chris Wondolowski and Gyasi Zardes a chance to lead the attack. Bedoya did well enough before being withdrawn 20 minutes from time, and got an assist on the US goal as he passed the ball in front of Jaime Penedo for Bradley to pounce in the six yard box for the goal, after some quick build up play.

But it wasn’t until Clint Dempsey and DeAndre Yedlin were introduced in the second half that the USA discovered the speed and urgency to stretch Panama. With their introduction and Bradley playing further up the field after a conservative opening 45 minutes, Zardes began to get more involved with the attack, though his overall performance was not quite the statement of intent his coach had implicitly asked him to make by starting him in the front two. Still, he was given the full 90 minutes to show what he could do, unlike Wondolowski and Morales, whose quiet performances ended at half-time.

Both teams were going for the win throughout the second half, and both goalkeepers were busy – Panama’s noted shotstopper Penedo owes his current MLS career to his Gold Cup performance in 2013, and was impressive on the night, while Brad Guzan in the US goal had some spectacular stops, including a 75th minute reaction save from Miguel Camargo that reinforced his own claim as the US No 1, perhaps regardless of whether Tim Howard decides to return to the international scene.

That was perhaps the main takeaway for Klinsmann, though – snapshots of individual performances and claims for places rather than a sense of how his team is functioning collectively. He’ll probably want to settle on a more recognizable first XI for the bulk of the knockout rounds, but few of the players on the cusp of selection made a compelling case for themselves in this game. Still, the team collectively remains unbeaten and continue to dent the hopes of their rivals, even as they offer the more capable ones plenty of encouragement.

USA: Guzan; Chandler, Brooks, Alvarado, Johnson; Beckerman, Bedoya (Johannsson 71), Morales (Yedlin 45), Bradley; Wondolowski (Dempsey 45), Zardes.

Panama: Penedo; Davis, Cummings, Roman Torres, Cooper; Quintero (Arroyo 86), Godoy, Gabriel Gomez, Pimentel (Camargo 62); Perez, Tejada (Nurse 71).