Although the scores may not reveal it, a road trip in which the Panamanian under-20 soccer team played two games with its Colombian counterpart indicated that Gary Stempel's squad is to be taken seriously at the world championships to be held in the United Arab Emirates in March. The first game, held on December 19 in Armenia, Colombia, resulted in a 1-all tie, with Jair Carrasquilla scoring for Panama. Two days later in the same venue, the two teams met again but this time Panama gave up an early goal and played short-handed most of the game due to two first-half red cards, giving Colombia the 2-0 win. Stempel, who was born in Ecuador of British parents and has lived most of his life in Panama, is negotiating for some more friendly away games to prepare the team for the March tournament, with a likely January game against the US under-20 team and posible matches against Jamaica, Haiti and Venezuela.

The nation's sports scene was rocked by its second scandal in a month when it was announced that Panamanian baseball players Freddy Herrera and Alfonso Brown tested positive for amphetamines at the recent Central American and Caribbean Games in El Salvador. According to the Olympic movement's rules, the two players will be suspended for two years from international and national competition, unless they opt for new tests of the samples taken in El Salvador and those tests show that the original positive result was erroneous. In an interview on Stereo Bahia radio Herrera admitted using amphetamines to lose weight and said that he didn't know that the substance was banned.