The dream ends for Stempel's boys

TPanama’s under-20 soccer team, which made national history by being the first team in that sport to reach a world championship tournament, didn’t make it to the second round. They lost three straight games, to Burkina Faso 1-0, to the United Arab Emirates home team 2-1, and to Slovakia 1-0.

In the wake of the disappointment, in the press and on the streets there are various post-mortems, mostly in the nature of second-guessing coach Gary Stempel. Did he play too conservatively, going for the tie against Burkina Faso and then the UAE, only to lose when the opponents scored in the 80th minutes of each of these games? Should he have gone with this player rather than that player?

Such talk goes with the job, but Stempel got a lot out of a collection of overachievers to even get to the tournament, and in the three games at Abu Dhabi goalie Carlos Valdés led a tenacious defense that had to be spectacular just to avoid being blown out. Add in a questionable call or two in the second game, a single defensive blunder in the first game, the result may have been different.

The Panamanian team’s weakness was the one that we have seen all along, an inability to control the ball and set up scoring opportunities in the other team’s end. Stempel’s boys got to the UAE by playing tough defense and, usually once or twice per game, getting a breakaway or taking advantage of an opponent’s defensive error to put the ball in the net. Though occasionally explosive, this was not a team with superstars or a powerful offense.

It looked otherwise for the first ten minutes of the first game, as Panama controlled the ball and dominated play against a bigger, more experienced Burkinabe squad. But then Burkina Faso toughened up, took three yellow cards and a lot of lesser fouls in the first half, and ended up buzzing the Panamanian goal in the 10th, 19th and 32nd minutes. On the latter occasion, the Africans missed a perfect point-blank opportunity to head the ball into the open left-hand corner of the net.

The second half was a tale of relentless Burkinabe pressure and remarkable Panamanian defense. But at 35:44 of the second half, Burkina Faso was fouled just outside Panama’s penalty area. A Burkinabe player moved past Panama’s defensive wall, the defender on the end flinched just a bit, and Burkina Faso’s Aristide Bance threaded the free kick through the tiny gap between Armando Gun and Orlando Rodríguez, leaving Valdés helplessly watching the ball go into the side of the net that the wall was supposed to protect. To Burkina Faso’s credit, it was a brilliantly executed feint and perfect shot.

So other than that play, how well did Panama defend its goal? The tale is told by the figures for shots on goal: Burkina Faso 8, Panama 1.

On December 1 Panama took on the home team, who had this cool zebra-striped male cheering section in the stands. And the Emirates came out roaring for their fans.

Just 18 seconds into the game, the UAE barely missed putting the ball into the upper left-hand corner of Panama’s net. Eight minutes later, the home team went high on a dangerous free kick. Then, at 14:50, Armando Gun committed what looked like a foul to me against the UAE’s Ali Al Wehabi at the left edge of the penalty area --- but as I saw it the foul were just outside of the box, with Al Wehabi falling into it. Belgian referee Frank De Bleeckere said it happened within the box, giving the home team a penalty kick which, after a false start, Ahmed Shehab converted into a goal.

Then, at about 26:30, Gabriel Gómez collided with an opponent, without either player being in possession of the ball. It looked like neither an intentional nor a brutal foul, but De Bleeckere sent Gómez off with a red card and Panama played the rest of the game shorthanded.

Nevertheless, in the 35th minute of the first half, Gun broke through the home team’s defense and converted what was to be Panama’s single shot on goal into the tying goal.

After that, the UAE repeatedly brought the play into the Panamanian end, only to be turned away by good defensive play. So it went until 34:12 of the second half, when Saleh Hamed put a diving header into the net, to the right of Carlos Valdés.

Six shots on goal for the UAE, against one for Panama --- and that one by Armando Gun, coming up from the defense --- said pretty much all that needed to be said about the Panamanian offensive failure.

The second loss all but eliminated Panama. There was a theoretical chance that a smashing victory over Slovakia and a combination of results beyond Panama’s control might have gotten Stempel’s squad into the second round.

The red card against Gómez, of course, kept him out of the following game and presented Stempel with a problem at midfield that he tried to solve with Irving Bailey.

The final game, however, was a rout that the score indicated only poorly. Panama’s one shot on goal came one-third of the way through the second half. Meanwhile, the Slovaks got 10 shots on Panama’s goal, one of which, just a couple of minutes into the second half, was a free kick that Viktor Pecovsky put past Valdés. A second yellow card and consequent expulsion for Panama captain Juan Ramón Solís with 22 minutes to go pretty much ended Panama’s hopes for a tie.

Again, the offense was ineffectual, but again, the goalkeeping was brilliant.

So the Panamanians came home earlier than they wanted to --- but nevertheless, with every reason to hold their heads high. They were outplayed and lost, but were never humiliated. Despite the disappointment in this, the first isthmian appearance in a world championship in this sport, the soccer world will surely hear more about several members of this team, and indeed, more from Panama.

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Under-20 team loses three by one goal, eliminated from world championships