In heartbreaking, last-minute loss, Panama announce themselves as a new force in Central American football

When the whle blew for the one last time at the SoFi Stadium in California, nine minutes into stoppage time, Panamanian players slumped to the grass, too tired to even cry. Or accept the commiserations from the victorious Mexicans in the Concacaf National League final. Their valiant journey had ended on the most tragic note, through a stoppage-time spot-kick goal. The ball was whling out, but the panicked defender Jose Cordoba intervened in the ball’s path with his outstretched arms to gift-wrap the penalty after 92 minutes of defiance and courage. But when the pain abates, when they reconcile with their cruel fate, they would reflect on a tournament they announced themselves as a genuinely emerging force in Central American football, and feel themselves immensely proud of reaching this far from one of the most troubled corners in the world.
Football, or life, has always been a perpetual struggle. Two years ago, Panama defender Gilberto Hernandez was shot dead with his friends in broad daylight in the port city of Colon, as they were caught in the middle of a shootout between rival gangs. Seven years ago, just months before their maiden appearance in a World Cup, 84-cap-old midfielder Mickey Henriquez was gunned down in the same province. A leading daily La Prenza claims that 20 professional footballers were killed in the tiny Central American country in the last 25 years.
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None of the incidents was deliberate, but they just happened to be at the wrong time at the wrong place in one of the most lawless stretches of the world, where homicides and shootouts outnumber the ships that shuttle in and out of the world’s second-largest free-trade port, a global hub of counterfeiting, contraband and drug cartels.
Gary Stempel, one of the pioneering coaches in Panama football, once told The Independent that his ‘entire side was made up of players from broken homes, with many of them having had more than their fair share of brushes with the law.’ One of his stars, Jose Garces was known as Polero for his love of guns. He had to request parole for another player from prison for a game.
Stempel, of Panamanian-English heritage, laid the groundwork for the sport in his 20-year association with the country’s football, culminating in their maiden qualification for the World Cup in 2018 after several near misses. The second-placed finish here, en route to upending three-time defending champions the US, has reasserted that they are an emerging force in the Central American bloc.
“Football in Panama didn’t look like anything at the time,” he recalled of the time he relocated to the county in the fag end of the 90s. “It was virgin, there was a league but they would play on baseball pitches. They would play on gravel; grass pitches were unheard of.”Story continues below this ad
A curved hmus linking Costa Rica and Colombia, so effectively, North America with the South, it’s roughly the size of California. It has just a population of four million. Most of the stadiums are archaic, only 12 teams feature in the top division. Most of the first-team players feature in obscure leagues around the world.
Cecilio Waterman, the goal-scorer in the semifinal who went and flung into the arms of pundit and legend Thierry Henry, sobbing and mumbling, “You are my idol” in the most famous image of the tournament, is a third-choice centre forward for Chilean first division side Coquimbo Unido.
The football association of the country was formed only in 1978, a high-performance centre was constituted as recently as 2023. The country’s first love is baseball. The great athletes from the country sprung accident of birth. Like boxer Roberto Duran, its most celebrated sporting personality, or base-baller Rod Carew or long-jumper Irving Saladino.
The win over the US came in the backdrop of political tension, after US President Donald Trump’s congressional address on March 5 wherein he asserted that “to further enhance our national security, my adminration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it.”Story continues below this ad
After the incandescent celebrations, a reporter asked Waterman: “Is the (Panama) Canal still ours?”. “Yes,” Waterman asserted with a grin before adding: “The canal is Panama’s but I don’t get involved in those things.”
They are a side in progress, still prone to hammering from bigger teams, but in coach Thomas Chriansen, a disciple of Johan Cruyff, they have discovered their guiding light.
Barcelona hired Chriansen in Johan Cruyff’s Dream Team era. A posse of legendary forwards in the squad, Chriansen, self-admittedly of modest gifts, largely warmed the dugout. So heady were the days that he could not establish himself as a regular even in the Barcelona B side. But watching the Dutchman and his wizardry bunch, he formed his footballing ideals.
“Imagine how advanced and how different (Cruyff) saw football. With time and with all that knowledge, you understand what he was looking for. That’s the type of methodology that we want to implement with Panama,” he would say when taking over the country.Story continues below this ad
But he was pragmatic enough, after his nomadic playing and coaching career, to understand that he had to tactically adapt to the talent at his disposal. Playing beautiful football is harder than preaching beautiful football. “We want to dominate and control matches and take the game where we want it. It’s difficult because individually we aren’t better than a lot of teams, but if each player understands their role and their importance and responsibilities to the team, we can compete,” he said before last year’s COPA America campaign, where they progressed to the quarterfinals.
True to Cruyffian principles, he turned them into a ball-dominating, possession-based 3-4-3 (rather than the standard 4-3-3), to harness the stormy pace of his wingbacks. In the central areas, the emphasis was on technical quality. But he soon realised that his team needed to be more physically robust like the bigger teams in the region, and hence line up in a 5-4-1, wherein they are content sitting back, keeping their shape and structural discipline and counterpunching with swift transitions. The semifinal against the USA was a classic instance when they repelled the storm and snatched the match with their lone shot on goal.
In the final, they fought Mexico toe to toe for much of the game, bounced back from an early goal and levelled the score before half time. The final glory eluded them, but they could reflect on a tournament where they announced themselves as a genuinely emerging force in Central American football.