The USMNT will take on its old foe Panama in the first of two October international window friendlies. Panama has played an unexpected role in the fate of the Stars and Stripes in recent years. Their advancement to the 2018 World Cup effectively knocked the Americans out of the tournament and this summer Los Canaleros won the second group match against the USA at the Copa America. That latter result put in motion a sequence of events that ultimately saw the departure of Gregg Berhalter and hiring of new manager Mauricio Pochettino.
A common trope that managers throw out is that they want to take their game to the opponent to get a reaction and control the match that way. The USA is surely talented enough to do that against Panama. Poch is certainly a good enough coach to come up with a game plan to go about doing that.
It’s his first match as manager and the international window is a short one, there isn’t enough time to implement a system and he doesn’t exactly seem like the system type. He’s been a manager who wants to attack and press, but with Panama sitting back the USA will need to possess and breakdown.
So far he’s set a tone that the team needs to come in and be prepared to work with intense training sessions ahead of the match. On the mental side of the game, he has said he expects arrogance and confidence without disrespect.
Panama has shown it should not be underestimated or disrespected. They’re also Panama, they are one of the most disrespectful teams in the world – they sit in a low block, eschew possession and challenge teams to break them down without putting too many players forward and being in danger of conceding on a counter. The USA will try to break them down and make the game fun and good, but Los Canaleros will make the Americans fight like they were constructing a massive infrastructure project in a tropical environment with equipment from the 1900s.
Adding to the void of trying to prognosticate how a game against Panama will transpire is that there isn’t much information about how Poch will use the players at his disposal. There’s also not much to be said about how he might change things if adjustments are needed and to what effect those moves will have. In short, what might happen in the future can’t truly be known because of the nature of time as we have constructed it.
