U.S. Coach Bruce Arena

On the match:

ôFirst of all, I give the U.S. credit for passing a character test. Give the Panama team credit for what I thought was a superb second half. Their forwards really won the battle and made a difference in the second half. I still think the big part of the game was our inability to take advantage of our control of the game in the first half, where we created chances and had a lot of the play.ö

On the PanamaÆs performance in the second half:

ôThe second half started and Panama played quite well. Give (Julio Dely) Valdez, (Roberto) Brown and (Ricardo) Phillips a lot of credit. Their three front runners gave our back four a lot of trouble.ö

On what the U.S. can take from this match:

''At the end of the day, it is certainly not a perfect performance, but weÆre on the road and we take two points away from the home team and have every player eligible for Game 4. Now we simply have to take advantage of having a couple of home games as we finish out this round.ö

On the advantages of having experienced players on the squad:

ôRarely do you get three guys that come into the game and make and impact. I think Panama got a real lift from No. 15 (Ricardo Phillips) and for the U.S. team I think McBride obviously helped out a little bit. I thought Lewis was real good and Cobi got the goal. The reserves were key players in this match. Give our three guys credit.ö

Cobi Jones

On the U.S. once again scoring late in the match:

ôIt seems to be a mainstay in our World Cup qualifiers. We have a never-say-die attitude. We have a team that is never going to quit. WeÆve proven that we can play the full 90 minutes.ö

On his goal:

ôLandon tried to take the shot and it came to me. My main thing was trying to open up the attacking lanes and stay onside. When it came to me I knew the ækeeper was trying to cheat for LandonÆs shot, so my thought was just to try and slide it in on the far post. I got a good piece of it. I had time to have a little trap on it and just knock it in on the far post.ö

Kasey Keller

On the playing conditions:

ôOnce again it was horrible conditions, bad lighting, the pitch was halfway under water. ItÆs a shame, but weÆre not going to blame anything on the field. We didnÆt play particularly well, particularly in the second half, but you have to give everybody credit for not quitting. You draw your games away, you win at home and you qualify for the World Cup. So far we are on schedule.ö

On getting another late goal:

ôItÆs a credit to everyone, obviously they donÆt give up. When things are going down a lot of teams just mope away from it, but we know weÆve got some very good athletes. Brian McBride comes on and wins a head ball, Donovan gets a hold of it and Cobi slots it home. When your two subs make a huge difference that is a credit to this team that we are as deep as we are. We know as we go on later (in the game) we can bring people on that can make a difference.ö