Panama Played Dirty

Sitting down to watch the Gold Cup quarterfinal between the USA and Panama, I was excited to see what Panama could do. I didn't get the chance to watch last year's Gold Cup in which Panama made it all the way to the championship, and I was eager to see what the tiny nation could do. Unfortunately, there was nothing beautiful about Panama's game. From the start the Panamanian defense was hacking and fouling the US. Landon Donovan earned the first US goal was he was literally tackled American football style on a breakaway. An amazing pass from Clint Dempsey released Donovan into the area and Donovan was grabbed around the neck and pulled to the ground. He cooly converted the penalty and two minutes later another Panama foul just outside the box resulted in a sweet headed goal from Captain Carlos Bocanegra. The US finally got a break from the referee when Panama had a player sent off with about twenty minutes to play, but Panama actually played better a man down. They scored off a poor defensive clearance and made it a game in the last few minutes. The US played well though, finishing was still poor, but the two quick goals came just at the time when the game could have gone badly for the US (i.e. Panama getting a late goal to win 1-0). The US plays Canada on Thursday night.

Odds and Ends
- MLS action this weekend was fantastic. Lots of goals and comebacks gallore. Here are the scores.
FC Dallas 1 - Real Salt Lake 0
Columbus Crew 3 - New England Revolution 3
DC United 3 - Chicago Fire 1
Kansas City Wizards 3 - Red Bull New York 3
Chivas USA 2 - Colorado Rapids 0
Toronto FC 4 - FC Dallas 0
LA Galaxy 3 - Real Salt Lake 2
- Beckham's hurt... possibly quite bad... could miss the entire summer for the LA Galaxy.