Panama still in the hunt for a World Cup spot

Panama in soccer’s World Cup? It’s never happened. Surely there are plenty of skeptics that think it never will, and in this cycle our national team is trying to do it without a single major star in any of the world’s most important leagues.

But at this point the Panamanian squad is not too many steps away from qualifying to go to the 2006 tournament in Germany.

The latest obstacle along the way wasn’t much of an impediment. But the national team had to beat the tiny Caribbean country of St. Lucia to get to the next step, and that they did convincingly.

Or maybe not so convincingly, for those who expected total humiliation and only got a couple of routs.

The Panamanians took the first game, played at Panama City’s Rommel Fernandez Stadium, by a 4-0 margin. It wasn’t as close as the score indicated. Had Panama converted half of its golden opportunities into scores, the margin would have been double. But as it was Julio Dely Valdés put the ball into the St. Lucia net just four minutes into the game, and then Luis Tejada and Ricardo Philips scored to make it 3-0 at halftime. The St. Lucians threatened, sort of, on a few long passes, but never really controlled the ball.

With the game well in hand substitutions were made and one of the reserves, Roberto Brown, scored a fourth goal in the 74th minute.

All the experts, and most of the dilettantes as well, noted that Panama’s offensive teamwork was out of tune, and though it was good enough for an easy home win over St. Lucia, it wasn’t of the quality that will be needed to get to the World Cup.

The rout continued in the away game at Castries on June 20, with goals by Luis Tejada, Julio Dely Valdés and Alberto Blanco. Again, St. Lucia was held scoreless.

So where does that leave the Panamanian squad?

In Group A of the next round of the CONCACAF qualifying process, along with the United States, Jamaica and El Salvador. The top two finishers in that group will go on to a next round, in which the top three of six teams will get passes to Germany and a fourth will have a chance to get into the World Cup by playing a team from the Asia-Pacific region.

Specifically, Panama will host El Salvador at Estadio Rommel Fernandez on August 18, then play Jamaica in the same venue on the fourth or fifth of September. These won’t necessarily be “must win” games, but they will be very good indicators of the team’s chances to qualify for the World Cup.

Also in this section:
Panama routs St. Lucia to keep World Cup hopes alive
Carlos Lee hitting streak ends at 28
Panamanians in Major League Baseball

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Panama keeps its 2006 World Cup hopes alive against St. Lucia