Jose Fajardo scored in the 83rd minute as Panama stunned a short-handed and battered U.S. team 2-1 in Group C of Copa America on Thursday in Atlanta.
The Americans had been down a man since Timothy Weah was red-carded in the 18th minute. The teams’ sizes evened in the 88th minute when Panama’s Adalberto Carrasquilla was sent off for violent conduct on Christian Pulisic, but the U.S. could not get the tying goal.
“Emotional roller coaster, but that’s soccer at the end of the day,” U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams said. “We know what we signed up for and playing in Copa America. We knew it was going to be a fight. Credit to Panama. They did their job. They got the result.”
The U.S. (1-1-0, 3 points) likely will need to beat Uruguay on Monday at Kansas City, Mo., in the last group match to advance to the knockout round. Uruguay (2-0-0, 6 points) rolled to a 5-0 rout of Bolivia (0-2-0, 0 points) later Thursday.
Panama also has three points (1-1-0) and remains in the running for one of Group C’s two qualifying spots.
“I’m very happy, in particular for the team, tactically and psychologically,” Panama coach Thomas Christiansen said. “I try to make the best decisions by being calm, level-minded. And of course, everyone that went in contributed what we expected from them, and now we have a victory such as this one.”
Folarin Balogun scored in a second straight match for the short-handed U.S. in the 22nd minute before Cesar Blackman equalized four minutes later.
It was a costly night all around for the U.S. with goalkeeper Matt Turner being lifted at halftime due to a leg injury after a violent collision with Blackman in the 12th minute. Blackman avoided a booking, to the distress of the Americans.
“There were things before the red card that went against us,” Balogun said. “Of course, we probably could have had a few decisions, but that’s the nature of the game.”
Turner was seen limping in the mixed zone after the match but said, “I’m gonna be all right.”
Weah was ejected via video review for a shove to the back of the head of Roderick Miller away from the ball during a frenetic and heated start to the match.
“Moving forward, we need to control our emotions in certain situations,” Adams said. “I think the team fought for everything after we got the red card. You definitely can’t fault the effort.
“By winning the first game, we put still ourselves in a position that we can have everything to play for in the last game.”
The best chance for the Americans in the second half was a Ricardo Pepi header from a Weston McKennie cross in the 81st minute that was saved by Orlando Mosquera, and Panama soon responded with the winner.
It didn’t look good early for Panama, but the U.S. went from the elation of an apparent goal in the fifth minute by McKennie to disappointment when upon a review, Tim Ream was ruled offside.
Seven minutes later, Blackman plowed into Turner while he was trying to grab the ball out of the air. Turner went down for several minutes and the U.S. team was incensed that Blackman avoided a booking.
Following Weah’s send-off, Balogun electrified the crowd with a wicked strike from 17 yards to the upper right corner for his fifth goal in 15 international matches.
The euphoria didn’t last long, as Blackman scored on the counter from the top of the box.
Ethan Horvath replaced Turner at the break and almost faced a huge moment in the 64th minute, but a penalty conceded by U.S. defender Cameron Carter-Vickers was overruled by VAR.
Adams said Weah apologized to the team after the match.
“Just respect to the rest of the team because they fought for every single ball, every single duel, every single minute, and we still created chances after going down 10 men, so it shows our quality,” Adams said.
–Field Level Media
