After being thoroughly outplayed by Panama (!), in the 92nd minute Landon Donovan scuffs a sitter that rolls to Cobi (who was probably offsides) who gives the US a tie 1-1.

No way the US deserved that point. You could probably say that the US were the better team in the first half, but the second half was all Panama from the whistle as the US midfield was non-existent. That's two late equalizers that have rescued a share of the points on the road. All this good karma has to change eventually, but I hope it doesn't.

i watched the game and i could tell the weather conditions were killing our guys' legs. i've played in rain worse than that where there are puddles all over the field. it's not fun at all and it wears you out pretty fast.

i was getting pretty ticked off at how Panama kept getting "injured" and wasted a ton of time by acting injured and making a stretcher come on the field. then they would get right up and be fine once off the field. also, the ball boys on the side would just drop the ball and make us run to go get it. i'm not saying i've never seen that before...but i've never seen it done this bad. typical south american football.

but i was glad we got the tie. we did the same thing against Poland in a friendly by scoring in the 88th....then against Jamaica by scoring the equilizer really late....and then again today.

[This message has been edited by sixiron (edited 9/8/2004 11:06p).]

Did you see the El Salvador game last weekend? The faked so many inuries (especially the keeper) that there was 8 minutes of extra time added on in the first half and 5 for the second. The Panamanians weren't nearly as bad as other teams and to the credit of the Mexican referee, he immediately called for the stretchers when a player went down to avoid wasting too much time. Although he did call time right before a US corner but I think that was just because he knew if we scored he probably wouldn't get out alive. All in all, the atmosphere there was pretty friendly and the officiating was good. At least no bags of urine and batteries hurled at the US players.

What disturbs me is the last several games the US have played really haven't been spectacular. The series with Grenada was lackluster. You could say they deserved a point against Jamaica but in many ways they were lucky to get it. The dominated El Salvador but couldn't finish and now this result against Panama. I guess the plus is that it looks like they haven't put together anything close to their best performance, yet they are still getting decent results.

I don't think you can expect spectacular at this point. The US is a team that tends to play to it's opponents. I think the guys get up for the big games but these qualifiers seem to wear on them.

That said, last night was just a case of get in and get out with a point, as are most road games. If the field had been in better condition it would have been a different story but the quality of that field was terrible. You could see the puddles and the splashing that resulted from every touch on the ball. I am just glad the US got a point out of it. It could be a back breaker for Panama. To come that close and have it taken away like that is like ripping your heart out.

I also think that Cobi Jones should be on the '06 WC team. That guy is a super sub.

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The US is a team that tends to play to it's opponents. I think the guys get up for the big games but these qualifiers seem to wear on them.

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Well, if the US wants to get to the next level and continue improving, thats exactly what they need to not do especially with this qualifying format where if you have one or two poor games, you're out wondering what happened.

I can name 10 players I'd rather take in '06 than Cobi Jones. Even though he did have a clutch goal, other than his hustle, his game is absolutely useless.

He also had the assist for the tying goal in the Jamaica game. He may be only a hustle player, but he is a super sub. He can come in and change a game and has many times... For example, in the WC game against Mexico he drew a red card within minutes of his entry into the game. He may not be the greatest but he always impacts the game.