Panama vs United States of America 28th March 2017

After 120 minutes of World Cup qualifying within five days, coach Bruce Arena has a previously winless campaign back on track.

Panama’s defender Luis Ovalle (left) and USA’s midfielder Christian Pulisic vie for the ball during their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier football match in Panama City. As Pulisic’s profile rises, teams are going to increasingly target him in order to disrupt the US attack. We had to get a point’.

Case in point: Two of the substitutes he used Tuesday, Kellyn Acosta and Paul Arriola, are on the upside of their young careers.

CBS indicated that the USA soccer team probably has no chance against Mexico so it has to win the earlier games. “We have three home games left”. We bounce around piecemeal and have things to say about Curt Onalfo, poor Minnesota United, and Syamsir Alam even makes an appearance. This is probably the most athletic team in CONCACAF so it’s hard to match them but I thought we did a good job’.

‘We didn’t tie the game, we won a dogfight, ‘ he said in a pitch-side interview.

Over the last two games, the back line was held together by little more than bubble gum, bailing wire and Gonzalez, who indicated that the four defenders who took the field on Tuesday – Jorge Villafana, Tim Ream and Graham Zusi were alongside the Pachuca man – had one training session to become acquainted with one another.

Yet, even as Arena leaned on the veterans in the pool, he also gave hints at where he was taking the team during this cycle.

For the 2014 World Cup, former coach Klinsmann cut Donovan from the roster, which left Dempsey to pick up the goal-scoring load for the U.S. Dempsey opened the tournament with the fifth-fastest goal in World Cup history, scoring just 29 seconds into the match against Ghana in a 2-1 win.

Former coach Jurgen Klinsmann routinely obsessed over the fact that the USA does not by nature face enough world-class opposition during the qualifying process.

Friday night’s obliteration of Honduras by the USMNT will be remembered as Christian Pulisic’s coming-out party, and as a welcome-back celebration for Clint Dempsey and Bruce Arena. Were there some miscommunications and issues defensively? Bruce Arena made his first obvious mistake as U.S. manager and put them together against Panama, and it didn’t work. We’ll see if they can capitalize on that. Likewise, his midfield partner, Jermaine Jones, failed to disrupt the Panama offense and prevent attacks often enough, saved by the grace of Tim Ream on one occasion and Howard on a couple more. We live up to our title today, going long talking about the USMNT, the MLS Western Conference, plus D.C. United’s upcoming game.

“[Pulisic] was grown as a player here in the U.S.”, Arena said during a roundtable with reporters. While Panama in the third table, but only begins to fight in the group.

Probable starters Fabian Johnson, DeAndre Yedlin and Bobby Wood, as well as starting candidate Jordan Morris, missed both matches and Cameron played against Honduras only.

Arena has never been a mystery. Back playing in the USA after successful spells at Everton FC and Manchester United in the English Premier League, the American stopper has been a stalwart of the national side since 2007 after making his debut in 2002. Trust your players, set clearly defined roles and have a strong understanding for how you want to play in any situation.

If there was any question of what partnership is preferred at center-back before these two qualifiers, we have our answer now. The hope is that Arena’s typical success follows.