PANAMA CITY: Panama won their first-ever World Cup qualifying match against the United States in Panama City on Sunday, picking up a 1-0 victory in CONCACAF qualifying for the 2022 World Cup.

The US side couldn’t find its rhythm and a header from midfielder Anibal Godoy following a corner kick in the 54th minute gave Panama the advantage to roars from the home crowd at Rommel Fernandez Gutierrez Stadium.

It was a deserved win for Panama, who created the better scoring chances against a disjointed US line-up.

It was clear we didn’t have our best stuff,” coach Gregg Berhalter told reporters.“I think we came up short in a number of areas.”

Berhalter said the focus would pivot now to “regrouping” for Wednesday’s match against Costa Rica.

Panama moved up into third place in the standings with the victory, level on eight points with the USA, who are second.

Mexico regained first place in the standings after goals from Francisco Cordova, Rogelio Funes Mori and Chucky Lozano were enough for a 3-0 win over 10-man Honduras in Mexico City.

Honduras’s veteran defender Maynor Figueroa was sent off for the visitors early in the second half for a brutal challenge on Raul Jimenez.

Mexico now lead the eight-team final qualifying round with 11 points from five games.

Canada have seven after they were were frustrated in a 0-0 draw against Jamaica in Kingston while in San Jose, Costa Rica came from behind to beat El Salvador 2-1 to move to six.

Jairo Henriquez put El Salvador 1-0 up in the 12th minute, before Bryan Ruiz and Celso Borges scored two goals in six minutes to give ‘Los Ticos’ a boost ahead of their game against the US.

El Salvador have five points with Honduras trailing with three and Jamaica two.

The top three teams qualify automatically for Qatar 2022 with the fourth-placed finisher going into an intercontinental playoff for another spot.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2021