The USMNT did not play poorly, but looked tentative and a little confused at times in Panama City. Los Canaleros made more chances and took more shots, and had a right to feel disappointed at the result, although they seemed happy enough with a draw by the end. The Panamanian defense, stingy throughout qualifying, was on top most of the night. Only a great sequence from Pilisic broke them down, as he stole the ball off one of their center backs, then held off the other until he could find Dempsey for a fine finish from close range. The hosts' goal came after a long throw-in was not dealt with and squirted to one of their players, who fired it past Howard very neatly.
Graham Zusi got turned inside out a few times at right back. Altidore was not effective. Jermaine Jones did not plug up the middle the way he used to, putting too much pressure on Bradley and the defenders. Ream and Gonzalez had a few misunderstandings. But as a team, the US did well enough to give hope for qualification. Fourth is good enough to earn a play-in (probably vs New Zealand), and for that we'd need to finish above two of Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, and Panama. I think we should be above all three by the end, meaning automatic qualification. Mexico is the class of the Hex, and I figure Costa Rica will hold their edge over us.
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I'm disappointed Wenger has not announced his retirement from Arsenal. I guess it's true that he's already signed the extension. Crazy. Alexis has said he's happy to play out his final year, but come on--is the management willing to forego the 30M to 40M pounds they'd get for perhaps the best player in the league? It's disturbing that he, Ozil, Ox, Szczesny, Jack, and others are also unsigned. It looks as though 9th place would be good enough for Stan Kroenke.
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