I know a lot of people may have watched the USA vs. Panama game on Tuesday night, but did everyone catch the significance of this game for Mexico? Soccer gods must still exist.
I remember when I was under 15 playing in regionals for soccer in Cary, North Carolina. In the US youth soccer system, teams go through state cup where the winner advances to regionals and then if fortunate enough to win they advance to nationals. My U-15 year consisted of a round robin that will scar me forever. I remember it so vividly. My team was playing against a team from Louisiana right beside the field where two Texas teams, D’feeters and Lonestars, were playing each other in a Lonestars must win game for us. My team had to beat the Louisiana team by 4 and we were already winning 6-0, while Lonestars had to beat D’feeters 2-0 for us to advance to the semifinals. Everything was going as planned, Lonestars was up 2-0 with 10 minutes left and we were up 6-0. My coach even took the starters off the field and put them on the bench to rest up for the semifinal game the next day. The tide quickly turned after that though. D’feeters banged in two goals with 5 minutes left to make the score 2-2. Of course, what we needed to happen to advance did not. When does it ever work out the way you need it to in sports anyway? NEVER…well hold that thought. Mexico would beg to differ. Mexico was about 60 seconds away for not qualifying for the World Cup in Brazil when the miraculous happened. Everything fell into place for them Tuesday night as the USA defeated Panama 3-2 and kept Mexico’s World Cup dreams alive.
Here are highlights in case you missed it. It is worth the watch:
The weirdest thing about this whole story is that the USA did not need to win the game against Panama to advance to the World Cup. They were going to go regardless. Panama had no doubt in their mind after their 84th minute go-ahead goal that they too were going to advance as a 4th seeded team In CONCACAF. All hope seemed doomed for the Mexican side after this. However, the USA squad was not going to quit. For many players on the USA squad that night, it was a huge opportunity to show head coach, Jurgen Klinsmann, that they deserved the minutes they got and that they could compete for starting positions. I am sure Graham Zusi’s injury time equalizer and Aron Johannsson’s game winner off the last play of the game silenced any of Klinsmann’s doubts. This game also brought to Klinsmann’s attention the brutal aspect of the sport and the persistent attitude of the US squad.
Right after the match, “Gracias USA” was trending all over Twitter. US Soccer replied:
Mexico will have to face New Zealand next month in a two-legged playoff game if it wants to play in Brazil 2014. It is great that Mexico can advance, but an important take away is that game changers were born Tuesday night for the US squad. Soccer is a crazy and unfair sport at times. Unfortunately, one team’s triumph means another team’s defeat. Although the US side has not been deemed world cup title worthy as of yet, they have shown that they are a team no one will want in their group come Summer 2014. The Panama vs. USA game definitely showed that anything can happen throughout the course of a game. This brutal aspect of soccer will make for a very interesting World Cup in 2014. Hopefully for the USA team, keeping Mexico in it does not turn around to haunt them later.
I saw the game as well. Absolute heartbreaker for Panama. Couldn’t really believe that the U.S. was able to pull it off the way they did, scoring twice in the last two minutes to put it away. I think the worst part about it for Panama is the fact that the usual starters for the U.S. weren’t on the field that night. Such a great victory for those players, but maybe that means Panama didn’t really deserve to be in the World Cup anyway? In my mind, you have to beat the best to earn the right to play in such a prestigious event. That might be a little harsh towards the U.S. players that night after such an amazing, comeback win, but that’s just how I feel.
Great post! It is interesting how sometimes in these pivotal matches it can seem like someone had to have written the script beforehand, full of plot twists, dramatic endings, and the miraculous. Your post reminded me a bit of the England vs. Poland match that occurred on the same day; the Poles could no long mathematically qualify and were playing an English side that needed a victory to secure qualification. Though England scored in the latter stages of the first half, the Polish team came out firing after the break and had a handful of chances they probably should have converted. But it seems the soccer gods had already laid their judgement upon the game, and chance after chance was denied by the gloves of Joe Hart or fizzled out right when it was looking most promising. At the end of the day, Steven Gerrard slotted home the goal that would send England to the World Cup, despite the already-left-out Poles giving it everything they had.