USMNT needs “game of their lives” to avoid Copa America elimination

The U.S. men’s national team came into Thursday’s Copa America showdown with Panama hoping to avoid adding any unnecessary pressure into Monday’s group stage finale vs. Uruguay, however, a 2-1 defeat to their CONCACAF rivals ended those hopes and now puts the USMNT under major worry.

Gregg Berhalter’s squad watched a first-half lead slip away in an eventual loss at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, putting the Americans’ knockout stage dreams in doubt. Tim Weah’s ejection in the 19th minute paired with two defensive errors led to the USMNT suffering their second head-to-head loss to Panama in the past two years.

Uruguay sealed its knockout stage berth later on Thursday night following a 5-0 hammering of Bolivia. The USMNT meanwhile now prepares to face the Uruguayans in Kansas City on Monday, knowing anything less than a victory could end their Copa America run after just three matches.

“We have to go, and we have to represent our country with passion, pride,” USMNT captain and star attacking Christian Pulisic said. “We have to go and play the best game of our lives, and that’s it. We want to go, we want to win, and we want to continue in this competition.”

“Obviously, Uruguay is a very good team,” midfielder Tyler Adams said. “We know we’re going to need to be at our best, but at the end of the day we can compete when we have 11 players on the field. It’s going to be a completely different game.”

Folarin Balogun’s fourth-career USMNT goal boosted the Americans in front after 22 minutes, however Panama would tie the match four minutes later through Cesar Blackman’s equalizer that deflected in off of Chris Richards’ leg.

Panama owned majority of the possession against the 10-men Americans but didn’t truly trouble Matt Turner (who left the match at halftime with an apparent injury) or Ethan Horvath outside of the two goals scored. Halftime substitute Cameron Carter-Vickers was slow in reacting to Abdiel Ayarza’s cross in the 83rd minute, watching fellow substitute Jose Fajardo volley home the eventual winning goal.

Weah’s poor judgement certainly put the USMNT in a major hole for the remainder of the match, but they also looked uncomfortable dealing with Panama’s overall strategy.

“It’s down to one moment,” Berhalter said. “When you look at the stats, you look at the chances that we gave up, it was really only that one moment. The guy gets an open look, and we didn’t deal with the first ball very well, we didn’t deal with the second ball very well, and then [there’s] too much space between our center-backs on the cross.

“But besides that, we’re talking about very, very little production from Panama and really a tremendous effort by the guys that did get in there, work for each other, keep our shape, and keep moving,” he added.

The USMNT now knows that an improved performance is needed to stay alive in the competition. Panama will face Bolivia on Monday, kicking off in the early match at 6 p.m. ET, providing the Americans with a glimpse of the type of result they need to stave off elimination.

Regardless, the USMNT needs to be ready for anything, especially since a group stage exit could lead to major changes heading into the fall schedule.