Copa America: Panama dreams big; Uruguay shows no mercy

Panama’s Copa America dream crystalizes a little more, while Team USA’s seems to be fading away as they both prepare for their third and final matches in Group C to determine the two teams that will advance. With Uruguay already qualifying and Bolivia out after two straight losses, it will be one of these two teams taking position #2.

• READ MORE: Uruguay 5-0 Bolivia: Highlights, stats, and result
• READ MORE: Panama 2-1 Team USA: Highlights, stats and result
• READ MORE: Copa America Stats

The future of the United States in the tournament is in great jeopardy and they will have to risk everything against Uruguay, who have shown no mercy to anyone, including Bolivia, whom they have already knocked out of Copa America.

Copa America: Panama 2-1 Team USA

• Panama, the third surprise of the Copa America

Copa America has already provided several surprises, and undoubtedly Panama’s 2-1 victory over the United States was one of the biggest.

That unexpected result comes on top of the Mexican National Team’s 1-2 loss to Venezuela Wednesday and Costa Rica’s draw with one of the tournament’s favorites, Brazil.

The defeat leaves Team USA in a complicated situation, as they will have to play for qualification to the knockout stage of Group C against powerhouse Uruguay, while Panama will play against a much less competitive Bolivia.

• Balogun at the top of the scoring charts

A small consolation is that Folarin Balogun scored for the second consecutive match at Copa América 2024, and with two goals, he now ties Lautaro Martínez (Argentina), Darwin Núñez (Uruguay) and Maxi Araújo (Uruguay) as the tournament’s top scorers.

The Monaco striker gave the United States the early lead in the 22nd minute with a shot that went in after hitting Orlando Mosquera’s far post.

• The recklessness of Tim Weah and Adalberto Carrasquilla

The United States played most of the match with 10 players after Tim Weah was sent off in the 17th minute for punching Roderick Miller in the head without the ball being in play.

Meanwhile, Panama’s Adalberto Carrasquilla was handed a red card in the 88th minute for a kick from behind on Christian Pulisic.

So far, four players have been sent off at the Copa América 2024: Miguel Araújo (Peru), Enner Valencia (Ecuador), Tim Weah (United States) and Adalberto Carrasquilla (Panama).

Uruguay 5-0 Bolivia

With their victory today, ‘La Celeste’ is now the third team already qualified for the next phase, where it joins Argentina and Venezuela, winners of Group A and Group B, respectively.

• Seven and counting

Darwin Nuñez, who keeps playing at a high level with the Uruguay National Team, has now scored in seven consecutive matches, reaching 10 goals in total after his last one against Bolivia.

The Liverpool striker ties the best scoring streak for ‘La Celeste’ set by Héctor Scarone between August 1927 and June 1928.

• Luis Suárez to applause

With the match already settled, coach Marcelo Bielsa listened to the wishes of fans who were screaming for Luis Suarez to come on; that moment came in the 82nd minute.

The historic striker had not played for his national team since December 2nd, 2022 against Ghana during the World Cup in Qatar.

• Bolivia back home

The Bolivian National Team will say goodbye to Copa America after the match against Panama to be played next Monday.

‘La Verde’ has failed to earn a single point or a single goal in its two games, falling 0-2 against the United States in its debut and now 0-5 against Uruguay.