A Gold Cup Win, Minus The Glitter
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Last Thursday’s Gold Cup semifinal between the USA and Honduras in Giants Stadium marked the first time in three years – and only the third time during Bruce Arena’s eight years as head coach – that the U.S. national team has played in the metropolitan area.
It would be pleasing to announce that it has been worth the wait – pleasing, but hardly accurate. The USA struggled mightily against Honduras, played thoroughly disjointed soccer, and needed an unlikely escape act – two goals in the final six minutes – to run out as winners.
On Sunday came the final against Panama. It must be said that this was not quite what the organizers of the Gold Cup had wanted. The desired final, the one that would pull in over 50,000 fans, was USA vs. Mexico, or maybe USA vs. Colombia. But you can never, ever rely on soccer to behave itself. The Colombians, fielding a decidedly sub strength team, eliminated Mexico and then were themselves sent packing by the pesky Panamanians.
So, instead of 50,000 fans, the Gold Cup final drew only 31,018, at least half of them, it seemed, wearing Panama’s blue-and-white colors. Masochists, evidently, because the game would surely go badly for their team.
Just nine months ago, the USA crushed Panama 6-0 in a World Cup qualifier in Washington, D.C. How could it be otherwise? One glance at the FIFA world rankings confirms the logic of that lopsided scoreline. The USA is ranked in sixth position (incredibly, ahead of teams like France, England, Germany, and Italy), while Panama languishes way, way down the list in 83rd place, nestled between Estonia and Canada.
But we got another example of soccer behaving badly. The blue-and-white-clad Panama fans found that their team was wearing an all-red uniform, while the USA fans found their team wearing white and playing very poorly. You could call the first half scrappy (though you might also want to drop the initial letter), and it ended scoreless.
You would never have known that it was the white shirts who were supposed to be so much better than the reds. Panama actually looked the better, more dangerous team. The Americans’ passing was so poor and so lacking in guile that they had trouble building any coherent attacking pressure. Panama defended tenaciously and counterattacked at speed through Jorge Luis Dely Valdes and Luis Tejada, two players whose ball control and directness was a constant source of concern to the American defenders.
Things did liven up in the second half, when both goalkeepers – the USA’s Kasey Keller and Panama’s Jaime Penedo – needed to come up with brilliant saves.
Again, it was Panama that impressed, with a lovely bicycle kick attempt on goal by Tejada (tipped away by Keller), and then a shot by Dely Valdes that came back off the crossbar. But even after overtime, the game was stuck at 0-0, which meant another chance for soccer to show off the world’s most fatuous tiebreaker: the penalty kick shootout.
The Panamanians made a hash of their kicks, scoring only once in four attempts; the USA hit the target three times, thus winning the shootout, the game, and the title of Concacaf Gold Cup champions. The Americans had triumphed without ever producing anything that looked like good soccer, and one felt for poor, lowly Panama, which did not deserve to lose this one.
Evidently, that thought was on the mind of U.S. assistant coach Glenn Myernick when he faced the press after the game. (Myernick was up on the dais because Arena watched this one from the stands – where he was serving out a one-game suspension after being ejected during the semifinal against Honduras). Asked for his general comments, Myernick – with refreshing grace and candor – spoke only of how well Panama had played.
He later admitted that the USA had not played well: “We had a number of guys have poor games today, their play was sloppy.” He rejected the suggestion that the USA had no discernible game plan, but conceded that “it was very difficult to tell what we were trying to do.”
Indeed, it was. Yes, Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley – the two players whom the USA can call on to do something unusual, to make a crucial pass or score the game winner – showed nothing. But we know those guys have exceptional attacking talent, so one pallid game can be forgiven. We also know – and saw again in this game – that forward Josh Wolff has great attacking potential when he receives playable passes from his teammates, particularly from midfield.
But midfield is a huge problem area for this U.S. team. Against Panama, it was populated with runners and athletes, hard workers, and hard tacklers. John O’Brien, Chris Armas, and Clint Dempsey performed prodigiously when it came to expending energy, but came up way short on the intelligence front.
The trio composed a midfield that never imposed any style on the USA’s game, that spent the afternoon making tiresomely obvious lateral and backward passes. Creativity? Defense-splitting passes? Forget it.
So we arrive at the back four – and quite possibly their shakiness can account for the unimaginative caution in midfield. Frankie Hejduk used to delight in his image as a flake, and he continues to play like one, an adventurous defender constantly veering from the very good to the ludicrously bad. Greg Vanney is not the adventurous type, but he looked anything but secure against the tricky Panamanian forwards and could not distribute the ball accurately.
In the center, Jimmy Conrad and Oguchi Onyewu – who are, admittedly, not the first choice players – were adequate, nothing more, and given to midfield fouling. Goalkeeper Keller was, as usual, impeccable.
The truly worrying thing about this USA team was that it included at least six players who could expect to be starters when the USA plays in the World Cup in Germany next year. Of the absent players, captain Claudio Reyna is the only one who can add the missing elements of style and midfield intelligence, without which the USA is a depressingly pedestrian team.