Panama
The Road to the 2018 FIFA World Cup
Panama’s road to Russia 2018 was a dramatic one. They began their campaign in Round 4 of the CONCACAF regional qualifiers, emerging from a group containing Costa Rica, Haiti and Jamaica.
In the following stage, results meant they had to defeat Costa Rica in their final game to secure one of three automatic spots, and pray for the United States to lose to less-fancied opponents. Despite the odds, fortune favoured the ‘Canaleros’. Dramatically, Roman Torres netted the winner for the Panamanians two minutes before the end of the match against Costa Rica, while the USA suffered a shock loss to Trinidad and Tobago. It was a historic goal for Panama that sent the team to the FIFA World Cup for the first time in their history.
Stars
Football fans will have a lot to learn about the Panama team, as none of their players are well known outside of the country. This makes their progress to the 2018 FIFA World Cup all the more remarkable. The transfer fee for the entire team combined is estimated at just €5 million: Panamanians play mostly for clubs in their homeland, and their international ambitions rise on average only as high as American Major League Soccer.
Panama’s No. 1 star is FC Lausanne-Sport forward Gabriel Torres. He was the national team’s top scorer in qualifying with three goals. He wasn’t a productive scorer before, but those three goals proved well-timed. Torres began playing for the national team back in 2005, before he turned 17. He was the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup’s top scorer, and the first Designated Player for MLS team the Colorado Rapids, which is the definition of a star player in American soccer.
The team captain is defender Felipe Baloy. He has been playing for the team since 2001 and contributed to its first big success, when the team placed second at the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Baloy made a career and a name for himself playing for the Mexican club Monterrey. He became the first Panamanian-born player to ever win the Mexican First Division championship. At the time, even London club Arsenal were looking at him, but ultimately a move to Europe didn’t materialize. Today, he plays for Municipal in Guatemala, and is a legend of Panama football.
Ismael Diaz, 20, is widely regarded as the nation’s rising star. He scored on his debut as a 17-year-old, and currently plays at Spanish club Deportivo’s reserve team, after having played at the reserve team for Porto.
Coach
The Panamanian Football Federation did well to appoint Hernan Dario Gomez as national team head coach in 2014. Gomez is renowned for his ability to lead teams to the FIFA World Cup: he has already taken both Colombia and Ecuador to the Finals. Repeating the trick with Panama, he has matched the record set earlier by French coach Henri Michel, who took three different national teams to world football’s showpiece event.
Gomez’s previous World Cup ventures were not particularly successful, however, and neither Colombia nor Ecuador made it beyond the group stage under his guidance. Nonetheless, reaching Russia 2018 is already a huge achievement in itself for Panama, and the fans will surely be happy to take in the World Cup atmosphere.
Past Achievements
Russia 2018 will be Panama’s first appearance at a World Cup. Before 1978, the team didn’t even attempt to qualify, and after that failed to do so 10 times in a row. In 2013, Panama was as close to the FIFA World Cup as ever before. The only thing standing in the way was winning against the US by at least a two-goal margin, which would have given them a ticket to the intercontinental play-offs; however, the US won the game, even though it meant nothing to them at that point.
Still, Panama have some local achievements under their belt. They twice made it to the final stage of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, in 2005 and 2013, also wining bronze in 2011 and 2015. In their home region Panama are considered stern opponents, and in 2009 claimed victory in the Copa Centroamericana.