The United States men’s national team needed a fantastic team performance against Panama on Friday night in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying action, and that’s exactly what it got. Lead by a phenomenal showing from Christian Pulisic, the USMNT dominated the night with a 4-0 win, with a goal from Pulisic and a brace from Jozy Altidore giving them a huge halftime lead they would not relinquish.
The USMNT exploded to a white-hot start with Christian Pulisic leading the way. Set up in a high-risk, high-reward wide-diamond formation, the U.S. pressed high and hard and threw Panama’s defense and midfield completely out of sorts almost from the first kick of the match. It was clear in the opening minutes that Panama were not prepared for what the USMNT were throwing at them, and had no real response to it.
Too often in the past, the U.S. would have an opening and fail to capitalize on it, but on Friday night they punished Panama ruthlessly. Christian Pulisic opened the scoring in the 8th minute with a fabulous goal, set up by poking a hip-high loose ball past a Panamanian midfielder towards goal and taking off after it, turning their entire defense around before rounding the keeper and slicing the ball into the back of the net from a tight angle.
⚽ | ¡GOOOOOOLL! Pulisic, con gran jugada individual, abre el marcador para @ussoccer. USA 1-0 PAN https://t.co/xeVAR607cC pic.twitter.com/bKMCuPaHks
— Univision Deportes (@UnivisionSports) October 6, 2017
Then it was Jozy Altidore’s turn, this time with Pulisic playing the provider in the 19th minute. An attack threatening to fizzle out was revitalized by a fantastic touch and turn by Pulisic towards the end line, giving him the time and space he needed to fire in a cross to Altidore in front of goal, where he turned it in with ease.
⚽ | ¡GOOOOOL! Altidore marca el segundo después de recibir gran pase de Pulisic. USA 2-0 PAN https://t.co/xeVAR607cC pic.twitter.com/xZIGyTdkzJ
— Univision Deportes (@UnivisionSports) October 6, 2017
The USMNT were in a dominant position almost before the game had gotten a chance to settle into itself, though it had already shown signs of being the immensely physical contest it could be. Matt Besler was bloodied early in the match by an elboy from Felipe Baloy during a corner kick, and Panama’s attackers weren’t shy about taking the game straight at U.S. defenders. The back line was up to the task and didn’t back down, though, with DeAndre Yedlin and Omar Gonzalez particularly impressing at times.
Even with the pace of the game slowing some as halftime approached, there was still another goal in it for the USMNT, who had kept chasing a third goal as relentlessly as they could. Bobby Wood had been running at Panama’s defense all night long to create danger, and after working back and forth with Paul Arriola to wait for an opening, eventually he got tired and just bulled his way into the box instead. That lead to a desperation foul from a Armando Cooper, and a penalty that Altidore converted with a cheeky Panenka finish past Jaime Penedo.
⚽ | ¡GOOOOOL! Jozy Altidore marca desde los 11 pasos con definición de lujo. USA 3-0 PAN https://t.co/xeVAR607cC pic.twitter.com/n8IAkpdIDb
— Univision Deportes (@UnivisionSports) October 7, 2017
Pulisic was the focus early in the second half as well, making a couple more dazzling runs — but also quickly getting targeted by Panama’s defense, falling victim to several hard fouls and other shots not seen off the ball. He was eventually taken off after taking a knock for protection, but Pulisic definitely left his mark on the match in a very real and tangible way.
Stepping up in Pulisic’s absence was Wood, who popped up in the 63rd minute with an absolutely huge goal, skipping clear of his marker as Paul Arriola ran towards the box with the ball, then taking Arriola’s through ball and turning with ease before rifling the ball past Penedo and into the back of the net, getting his just rewards for a phenomenal performance of his own for the USMNT.
⚽ | ¡Esto ya es goleada! GOLAZO de Bobby Wood. USA 4-0 PAN https://t.co/xeVAR607cC pic.twitter.com/mF8CadHQIS
— Univision Deportes (@UnivisionSports) October 7, 2017
Not long after that it was time for Clint Dempsey to come on and chase the United States goalscoring record for the men’s national team, but it was Arriola who had the next great scoring chance for the USMNT, with Penedo just barely parrying his shot after a blitzing run into the box in the 80th minute. Sadly, Dempsey wouldn’t score against Panama, but in the end he hardly needed to, with the game well in hand before he came on.
The huge win takes a massive load off the shoulders of the USMNT, pushing them up into third place in the Hex standings and in position to qualify directly to the World Cup. They still need to beat Trinidad and Tobago to completely guarantee that they advance with no other concerns — but they’re in a much, much better place than they were before this game.
United States: Tim Howard; DeAndre Yedlin, Omar Gonzalez, Matt Besler, Jorge Villafaña; Michael Bradley, Darlington Nagbe, Paul Arriola, Christian Pulisic (Dax McCarty 57’); Bobby Wood, Jozy Altidore (Clint Dempsey 71’)
Goals: Pulisic (8’), Altidore (19’, pen. 43’), Wood (63’)
Panama: Jaime Penedo; Michael Murillo, Felipe Baloy (Fidel Escobar 46’), Roman Torres, Luis Ovalle; Anibal Godoy, Gabriel Gomez, Edgar Bárcenas (Armando Cooper 26’), Alberto Quintero; Gabriel Torres, Blas Pérez (Abdiel Arroyo 60’)
Goals: None
Three things we learned
It’s Christian Pulisic’s world, we’re just living in it.
With his club form at Borussia Dortmund floundering a bit of late, many were wondering just what the USMNT would get from Pulisic in this match. The answer, as it turned out, was everything, with the 19-year-old attacker putting in arguably his best performance for the national team to date — a high bar indeed given how he’s already put the U.S. on his back several times in his young career.
On Friday against Panama, he was simply on another level. He was playing at a pace that Panama couldn’t cope with, and at a technical level that let him work circles around them even when they got close. Just look at his ridiculous technique to create the opening goal — poking the ball out of a difficult spot and past a midfielder, then simply racing past one of the best defenders in CONCACAF in Roman Torres before rounding the goalkeeper.
Over the last year, Pulisic has grown from being one of the most promising young stars in USMNT history to the best player in the current squad and arguably one of the best players in all of CONCACAF right now. It’s been astounding to watch him grow, and it’s difficult to imagine just what kind of heights his career can achieve.
Panama had a dreadful performance at a bad time.
Panama have quietly been very good throughout the Hex, playing evenly with Mexico and Costa Rica and getting all the results they needed elsewhere, including a key draw with the USMNT earlier in the group. But they had a now-uncharacteristically poor showing against the U.S. on Friday night, and their World Cup qualification hopes are suffering for it.
Panama are still in the driver’s seat to finish in the inter-confederation playoff spot and have a solid chance of qualifying through that, but they’ll still need help in the form of Costa Rica and Mexico keeping Honduras from accumulating points. They have just a one-point cushion on Los Catrachos now, and they’ll need to be much, much better than they were on Friday when they face Costa Rica next week to guarantee that they finish where they need to — or else their dreams of reaching their first-ever World Cup are over.
Bruce Arena rolled the dice with his tactics and it paid off.
The formation the USMNT opened the match with was a massive gamble by Arena, but this time around it worked out for them in absolute spades. They came out in a wide-diamond formation, with Darlington Nagbe and Paul Arriola almost hugging the touchlines and Michael Bradley all on his own in front of the back four. It’s a shape that almost begged Panama to run right up the middle at the U.S. defense — but they never got a chance to, because the U.S. attack ran rampant instead.
The width of Nagbe and Arriola paired with Pulisic’s creativity behind the front two saw the USMNT run at Panama’s over-stretched defense time and again, with Arriola’s runs on the right in particular giving them fits all night long. Panama just couldn’t get enough time on the ball with the U.S. attack constantly running at them and switching the ball around to create many dangerous attacks of their own, and by the time the U.S. finally slowed their pace and moved to a slightly more conservative shape, they were already down 3-0 and well out of the game.
It’s a gamble that Arena has tried before, in the 2-0 loss to Costa Rica, and it almost worked there. But Keylor Navas is a much better goalkeeper than Jaime Penedo, and Costa Rica’s attack is more clinical than Panama’s, so the U.S. couldn’t make good on the risk in that match. This time it worked, and it’s a gamble worth taking at times in the future as well — as long as the matchups are right, which they were on Friday night.