By Ridge Mahoney
Soccer America Magazine Senior Editor
in Panama City, Panama
The nadir of Coach Bruce Arena's lengthy and successful stint as U.S. head coach nearly arrived, but for the fifth time this year the Americans conjured a goal in the final minutes.
A lackluster U.S. team was rescued by one of the nearly forgotten veterans from the 1994 glories, Cobi Jones, who again proved exactly why Arena keeps him around. As the seconds waned and a fearful din in the Rommel Fernandez Stadium neared deafening levels, Jones tucked away a ball from Landon Donovan to salvage a quite fortunate 1-1 tie with CONCACAF surprise team Panama.
The U.S. couldn't score an early goal to discourage the lively Panamanians, and its sluggish play was slowly but inexorably smothered as Panama swept up balls set free by errant U.S. passing and poured forward with increasing frequency.
Substitute Ricardo Phillips tormented the U.S. from the moment he stepped onto the field, and despite using his allotted three subs Arena couldn't find the right formula to defuse Phillips and revive his own waning attack.
Phillips broke loose in the 70th minute to give Panama the lead. Clean through, Phillips had his initial shot saved by Keller, but the ball squirted behind the U.S. keeper. When Phillips regained possession, he drilled a low ball that ricocheted off the base of the near post to Roberto Brown, who tapped it into the empty net.
As he had hinted but never confirmed leading up to the match, Arena changed five starters from the 2-0 win over El Salvador. He retained Brian Ching and Conor Casey up front and kept Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and Claudio Reyna in midfield.
Arena reverted to the set of outside backs he'd deployed in Kingston last month in the 1-1 tie with Jamaica, putting in Greg Vanney for Bobby Convey on the left and using Frankie Hejduk on the right instead of Steve Cherundolo.
Eddie Pope, who sat out the El Salvador game with a strained hip, was paired with Carlos Bocanegra in central defense in place of Cory Gibbs, and Arena went for a more attacking option in central midfield by replacing ballwinner Kerry Zavagnin with Clint Mathis.
The other switch was in goal, where Kasey Keller replaced Tim Howard, who left the squad after playing his first qualifier against El Salvador.
Heavy rains and flashes of lightning the day before the game had forced Arena to cancel a training session at the Rommel Fernandez Stadium, which was named for a popular Panamanian player killed in a car crash. A small group of fans had set up speakers outside the team's hotel the night before the game in an effort to disturb the players' sleep by blaring music, but the police dispersed the group well before bedtime.
Arena inspected the field the morning of the game and proclaimed it ''all right,'' but steady rain began falling two hours before kickoff and lightning occasionally lit up the stadium until late in the first half.
Puddles in his penalty area plagued Keller as he splashed about to collect the few passes that Panama placed into dangerous areas in the first half. Pope and Bocanegra won most of the aerial duels against Brown and Julio Dely Valdes but the Panamanians had better looks at goal. Alberto Zapata zipped a shot from about 25 yards just past the base of the post and Julio Medina shot wide after a fluffed clearance by Bocanegra.
Brown nodded a ball to the right side of the penalty area that fell to Zapata with time and space to chest it down; he did so, then shanked the shot.
The U.S. pushed up the flanks to little effect. Vanney served several balls from the left that were repelled, and he drove a low free kick to Ching that the San Jose forward somehow managed to steer astray from about six yards out.
Mathis, usually playing in front of Reyna, clipped several promising balls. Bocanegra got on the end of one of Mathis' balls, but his tepid header didn't get through. Mathis' reluctance to shoot allowed Panama to pack the box, and his only attempt at goal on a free kick went waist-high straight into the wall.
Reyna tried to crack the spine of Panama's resistance by twice serving balls and racing forward to meet the return pass, but Ching and Casey couldn't connect with him. Casey also passed up a chance to shoot while about 15 yards out on the right side and his centering pass was cleared.
Rather than growing dispirited at their inability to score, the Panamanians drew strength in the second half from damping out U.S. attacks as the crowd's drumming and roaring grew louder. Their poor finishing betrayed them and never more so when Carlos Rivera escaped Ching to powerfully head a corner kick over the crossbar from well inside the box.
A whistling shot by Phillips after he'd veered inside from his left midfield slot didn't miss by much, and he also served a dangerous ball from the right that Brown nearly reached. Phillips rattled the crossbar from 20 yards; the crowd roared even though the play was negated by a foul called when the ball was flicked to him.
Arena had pulled off Mathis early in the second half and placed Jones on the right wing. He later put in Brian McBride for Casey and Eddie Lewis for Ching to add speed and spirit to a U.S. team unable to win tackles or connect passes with any alacrity.
A thunderous ovation shook the rundown stadium when Brown put away his chance and for the remaining 20 minutes the U.S. tried to get back into the game. Donovan drilled a rising shot that keeper Donaldo Gonzalez turned over the bar, and on the ensuing corner Donovan's barely nudged his first-time effort.
But Donovan finally got his touch right in the first minute of stoppage time when a ball came to him as the goalmouth roiled in chaos. He pushed the ball square through a pool of water, and Jones stabbed it past Gonzalez from about eight yards out to avoid a most embarrassing result for the country that proclaims itself the best in CONCACAF.