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CANADA 1 PANAMA 1
The knockout stage came early for Canada at the Gold Cup with their final group stage match against essentially being a win or go home encounter. After a couple of performances in which the Canadian team had stretches where they played like Canadian National Team Head Coach Stephen Hart has expected them to, the Canucks went into this without having scored a goal from open play in their two initial fixtures. Canada was dealt a blow before the opening whistle when it was announced that midfielder Atiba Hutchinson would not play again at the Gold Cup due to injury. With their best player missing the pressure was on Dwayne De Rosario, Josh Simpson and Simeon Jackson to get the job done against a Panama side that was coming off a victory over the United States in their previous match.
Hart made only one change from the lineup that started against Guadeloupe, starting Jackson up top in place of Ali Gerba. Surprisingly, Panama Manager Julio Dely Valdes made six changes from the squad that defeated the U.S. as his squad looked to clinch first place in Group C.
The Opening Forty-Five
The first half kicked with Canada delivering their best start of the tournament, as they played with energy, moved well off the ball and dominated possession while playing with confidence.
Canada had a decent chance to get an early goal in the 5th minute when a nice through ball by Julian de Guzman released Simeon Jackson, but the pacey forward let loose with a shot that was just high and wide.
The 21st minute brought the first blatant dive of the match by Panama, courtesy of Luis Renteria.
In the 29th minute, Dwayne De Rosario set up De Guzman with a great chance in close, but Panama keeper Luis Mejia came up with huge save to keep the proceedings scoreless.
Five minutes later, Canadian midfielder Will Johnson made a great play to clear the danger when a Panama forward was lining up to deliver a strike from a dangerous spot.
The first half would end with the match scoreless and Canada looking very much like a team devoid of offensive ideas.
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Will always support #CMNT but there needs to be fundamental change to all levels of CDN soccer for real improvement, look at #USMNT history.
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The Second Half
The stretcher for severely injured players made its first appearance early in the second half when Panama’s Eduardo Dasent had to be carried off the field with what initially looked like a possible career ending injury. Miraculously, he was back on the pitch and running faster than many of the Canadian players only seconds later.
Canada continued to move the ball in an impressive fashion, while at no time genuinely looking like a side that was going to score.
The breakthrough for the Canadians came in the 61st minute, when De Rosario was bowled over in the Panama box and Canada was awarded a penalty kick on what looked to be a debatable. Canada’s active leading scorer stepped up to the spot and buried his 17th International goal and gave his side the lead his team so desperately needed.
Following the goal, the run of play changed to one in which Canada sat back and Panama started to dominate possession as they pushed forward in search of an equalizer.
Canadian keeper Milan Borjan made a big save on a shot by Renteria in the 70th minute to preserve the lead.
The remainder of play was characterized by Panama upping the pressure and a number of nervous moments by Canada as they tried in vain to hold onto the lead.
Panama delivered a heartbreaking blow to Canada in extra time when they rattled one off the crossbar and Canada could not clear the ball out of their box and Blas Perez would end Canada’s run at the Gold Cup when he easily tapped the ball into the Canadian net.
The Final Word: Canada has a lot of work to do
Even with their best performance in the tournament, Canada ultimately did not deliver enough to earn a spot in the knockout stage. Every aspect of the Canadian performance was improved against Panama, with the exception of their ability to generate scoring chances. Three games and zero goals from open play pretty much defined Canada in the 2011 Gold Cup, as the Canadians now find themselves among the group of four teams that are going home ahead of the knockout round. The CONCACAF Gold Cup is a wacky tournament, but the honest truth is that Canada did not play well enough to deserve a spot in the next round. Hindsight is always 20/20, but when they were up by a goal they should have gone for the jugular and put Panama away. They did not and instead attempted to soak up the pressure and defend a very slim one goal lead for half an hour. Canada rolled the dice and lost and now the inevitable questions will have to be asked. Sadly, the effort was there by Canadians, but the game plan was flawed and the team’s lack of depth at key positions was once again exposed.
While the Canadian National Team supporters will feel sick over this result and some will question the tactical choices made by Stephen Hart, everyone associated the with Canadian National Team has stated over and over again that the Gold Cup was not the end goal and that a World Cup Qualification is the only things that really matters. With that in mind, the only positive that can come from this tournament for Canada is if the coaching staff and players have learned truly valuable lessons from such a disappointing showing. Putting aside any positive performances that the team had previously in exhibition matches in Europe, right now Canada looks quite far off from a team with a legitimate shot to qualify for a World Cup. The Canadians looked like one of the poorest offensive sides in the tournament and appear too slow at a number of positions. From a tactical standpoint, their bag of tricks looks too small to be able to adjust on the fly when required. While a strong showing would no doubt have boosted the confidence of the players heading into World Cup qualifying, supporters can only hope that they will be able to look back in a year and see that this poor tournament showing was the turning point that showed the coaching staff and players just how far they have to go and put them on the right track. Allez Les Rouges!
Canada Line-up
Milan Borjan
Mike Klukowski
Kevin McKenna
Andre Hainault
Nik Ledgerwood
Will Johnson
Terry Dunfield
Julian de Guzman
Dwayne De Rosario
Josh Simpson
Simeon Jackson
Substitutions: (73) Ricketts in for Simpson (85) Pacheco in for Johnson.
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