Mendieta's boys going to the world championships

By the time they were done playing on the afternoon of January 16 in Carson, California, the members of Panama’s under-20 national soccer team still didn’t know their fate.

They had just soundly thrashed hapless Trinidad and Tobago by a 3-1 score, after a 1-1 tie with Costa Rica in their opening game and 2-0 loss to the host Americans. Two squads from of the four-nation group would get on of the four CONCACAF tickets to the world championships to be held in Holland this coming June and July. Going into the last day the Americans had qualified on the strength of a 6-1 massacre of the Soca Warriors and their win over Panama. The Costa Ricans had also beaten Trinidad-Tobago, by a 2-1 margin. What it all meant was that in the tournament’s final game, the Ticos had to beat or tie the Americans, or at least not lose to them by more than one goal, to get to the Netherlands.

But the Americans, resting its superstars Freddy Adu and Eddie Gaven for most of the game, took out Costa Rica by a 2-1 edge, and that boosted Panama over Costa Rica on the basis of goal difference in group play, both teams having tied on points with 1-1-1 performances.

That will make two world championships in a row for Panama’s under-20 team, which before Gary Stempel led the boys to the United Arab Emirates was part of a national soccer scene that had never sent a team to any world championship at any level. In the UAE in 2003 Panama played credible defense but could only score one goal and was bounced out of the tournament in the first round.

In many ways this year’s under-20 team, coached by Víctor René Mendieta, plays like Stempel’s boys did, and not just because there are a few holdovers. Mendieta’s don’t control the ball very well, especially in their offensive zone, but have a few speedsters who can at any moment take a long pass and break away past the defenders to pose a serious scoring threat. Back on defense, they get tougher and tougher the closer they get to their own goal and goalie José Calderón cleans up most of the mistakes made in front of him with spectacular plays. This team wins on breakaways and loses on defensive mistakes, and in its best games doesn’t score many goals.

The big Panamanian offensive threats are a couple of defenders, Armando Gun and Luis Gallardo, with striker Alvaro Salazar seemingly always there when the ball squirts out from one of the former two making a play. In the final game Salazar provided the qualifying edge with two goals but it was Gallardo who carried the day with a goal of his own and by creating other opportunities for his teammates. Gun missed the final game, having been red carded in the closing minutes against the Americans.

While there will be various friendly matches in the meantime, the next game that will count for the Panamanian under-20 team will be on June 10 in the Netherlands.

As this story was written the CONCACAF’s under-20 group B teams were playing in Honduras for the other two berths in the world championship. In that process Honduras, Jamaica, Canada and Mexico all have their hopes up.

That leaves this country’s soccer fans with another CONCACAF elimination to dominate their attention, the prolonged process for picking the teams that will go to the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Panama has never gone to a World Cup, but judging by various factors, including increased success at the under-20 level and the ever-growing ranks of Panamanian players signing with professional teams abroad, we are a growing presence on the international scene.

TV viewers in Panama will be able to see the first game of that round, which will take place in Guatemala on the evening of Ash Wednesday, February 9 and will be shown on RPC-TV.

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