The American men’s national team was expected to improve heading into the 2024 Copa América after a strong performance at the 2022 World Cup. It was meant to have reached adulthood. It was meant to represent the next evolution toward membership in the global elite. However, the United States’ 2-1 loss to Panama on Thursday not only demonstrated that it still has a long way to go, but it also marked a significant regression that seriously jeopardized its chances of making it to the Copa América knockout stages.
To guarantee its advancement, the United States must now defeat Uruguay, the team favorites in the group. Worse, because Uruguay has not secured a spot in the quarterfinals as a result of Panama’s victory, La Celeste will have plenty to worry about.
Although the defeat hurts on many levels, the thing that hurts the most is that what happened was nothing the United States had never seen before. Despite CONMEBOL overseeing the competition, this contest had all the hallmarks of a Concacaf match—chippiness, dubious calls by the referee, and cunning—that have long been associated with matches in the area.
However, despite its claims to be prepared for everything Panama could throw at it, the U.S. appeared unable to handle it at crucial times. Tim Weah, a winger for the United States, attempted to jab at Panama defender Roderick Miller twice in the 16th minute. Only the second attempt connected, thus referee Ivan Barton had no choice but to send Weah off after VAR detected the infringement. This completely changed the game.
It was an unacceptable display of lack of discipline from a guy who had only ever been sent off once in his whole professional career. Weah apologized to his teammates after the game, despite the fact that he was not allowed to speak to the media due to tournament regulations.
