USMNT Finish Gold Cup on Sour Note, Drawing a Disappointing Tournament to an End

The United States men's national team completed its disappointing campaign at the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup in appropriate style on Saturday, laboring to a 1-1 draw with Panama before losing to the Canaleros 3-2 in a penalty shootout.

The result will be disappointing to fans, and it will give new ammunition to U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann's critics, as he had a few decisions go wrong at the tournament. But the reality is that the tournament effectively ended for the Americans after the 2-1 loss to Jamaica in the semifinals, and Saturday's consolation match was little more than an exercise in playing out the string.

As such, we can't really draw many conclusions from the game or the result. Instead, both the team and its followers will now look ahead to Oct. 9. That is the date CONCACAF has set for a special, one-game playoff to determine its representative at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.

"We badly want to win this tournament because we want to qualify for Russia 2017," Klinsmann said in March (via Soccer America). "This is huge to us. The best way to do this is to win this summer so we avoid a playoff game in October."

Matt Rourke/Associated Press

After the loss to Jamaica, that goal became impossible. While the U.S. probably would have liked to end the Gold Cup on a positive note by beating Panama, it had little to do with the goal currently at hand.

It almost comes off as an exercise in grasping at straws, but it was almost more important for the U.S. to not have any players seriously injured or sent off in Saturday's game. Red-card suspensions would have carried over into the playoff, as Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl noted:

Beyond that, the conclusions were few for Klinsmann and his staff. Center back John Brooks was at fault for another goal, but the talented young defender had already struggled through long stretches of the tournament. Clint Dempsey scored again, underlining his value to the team, but we've known for years how indispensable he is to the U.S. attack.

DeAndre Yedlin set up the U.S. goal with excellent holdup play in the box, followed by a heads-up pass to Dempsey. As NBC Sports commentator Arlo White noted, Yedlin continues to impress as he develops: 

DaMarcus Beasley finally made his first tournament appearance after Klinsmann called him into the team after the group stage; an injury kept him out of the quarterfinals and semifinals. This was supposed to be his final match with the U.S., having already come out of international retirement once, but it seems more than likely Klinsmann could recall the veteran full-back yet again for the playoff.

Goalkeeper Brad Guzan performed well, making 10 saves and redeeming himself somewhat following his costly blunder against Jamaica in the previous round. Tim Howard, when he returns, will likely remain the team's No. 1, but when he's on his game, Guzan is capable of pushing Howard for playing time.

Michael Perez/Associated Press

In the end, Panama deserved the win. The team outshot the U.S. by a wide margin and dominated most of the game. In beating the Americans, Los Canaleros gained some measure of revenge for a 2013 loss that ended their chances of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.

However, it's unlikely the players were actively thinking about that during Saturday's game. Based on the way both teams performed over 120 minutes, it seemed more likely they were thinking only about how they wished they were playing in the final instead. 

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