The World Cup: Panama

ThisDrinkingLife and The World Cup: Panama

A few years ago I watched Panama play in the Gold Cup, the competition for north and central American teams (Concacaf), and I was very impressed. So impressed that I rang my bookie and placed a bet on them to not only qualify for the World Cup but to also reach the last 16 and the last 8. Got odds of about 50/1, 20/1 and 12/1 as far as I can remember. That was way back in 2013, and they had a great tournament playing some scintillating free flowing football, beating Mexico along the way, not once but twice, and just losing to the USA 0-1 in the final. I figured as four teams make the Concacaf qualifying my bet was decent. Well unfortunately they missed out on making the play offs when beating an already qualified USA, they somehow managed to lose the game and ship two goals in injury time to lose the game 3-2. Ah well.

Well time changes, as for this years World Cup, they got their own slice of lady luck when they beat Costa Rica 2-1 with a goal two minutes from time to move them into automatic qualifying, and the fact that the USA somehow lost to Trinidad and Tobago a score that no one foresaw and resulted in the USA not going to Russia. I guess the long wait was worth it, two minutes from time to qualify for the biggest stage.

What do I know about the present team? Not a lot, most of their team play in the MLS in the US, and that this time the standard in the Concacaf region was pretty tame. It was nearly harder not to qualify (well done USA!). They are also ranked 56th in the Fifa rankings, which isn’t great, and were recently hammered 6-0 by Switzerland in a friendly. In a group with European powerhouses Belgium and England, and Tunisia, I fear it wont be a pretty World Cup for them at all. I think they will be doing very well to get even one point from the three games.

One face that does look familiar is the manager Hernán Darío Gómez, the wily Colombia has previous in the World Cup, having taking Colombia and Ecuador to the world stage on two separate occasions. One would hope that Gómez has a learnt a few tricks up his sleeve if he wants Panama to progress, but well done on getting them there in the first place.