USA vs. Panama Women's Soccer: 2020 Olympic Qualifying, Live Stream

The United States women's national team will be expected to take another big step towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on Friday, when they take on Panama in CONCACAF qualifying.

The world champions are big favourites to advance and started the competition on Tuesday with an emphatic 4-0 win over Haiti. And a similar outcome will be expected against their next opponents at the BBVA Stadium in Houston.

After all, Panama were hammered 6-1 by Costa Rica in their first game and lack the quality needed to compete with Vlatko Andonovski's team over the course of 90 minutes.

Here are the key details for Friday's fixture, as the United States continue their preparations for the Tokyo Games this summer.

Date: Friday, January 31

Time: 8:30 p.m. (ET), 1:30 a.m. (GMT, Saturday)

TV Info: Fox Sports (U.S.)

Live Stream: Fox Soccer Plus (U.S.)

Preview

It was always unlikely the United States would have any major issues progressing into the main draw for the Olympics. 

On Tuesday, Haiti did well to put up some resistance at times, but the difference in quality between them and the USWNT was clear.

After a goal from Christen Press in the second minute, the Haitians kept out the world champions until the 67th minute, when Lynn Williams found the back of the net.

Goals from Lindsey Horan and veteran Carli Lloyd added gloss to the scoreline in the final stages:

The United States' improvement late in the game coincided with the introduction of Megan Rapinoe from the bench, with the forward able to find space against a tired Haiti defence. The winner of FIFA's Best Women's Player award was involved in the buildup to second and third goals.

In his first competitive match in charge of the team, Andonovski hailed the positive impact Rapinoe had on the team, although he wasn't happy with certain aspects of the overall display, per Laura M. Gomez of Pro Soccer USA.

"[Rapinoe's] entrance, once she got on the field, it gave us a little different dynamic, gave us something different, made the team more dangerous," the head coach said.

He added: "The positives are that we were able to win the game 4-0 so, regardless, absolutely positive. But the negative is that we couldn’t create more opportunities and I felt like we could have scored more goals."

Even though the United States will be big favourites for all of their qualifying matches, Andonovski will be keen to keep standards up, setting a high bar for the summer and the stronger opposition the team will be up against in Japan.

It will be intriguing to see if the manager makes many changes for the fixture on Friday. Although it's a competitive game, the level of opposition will give Andonovski the luxury of looking at more players without any real fear of the team slipping up.

Panama are likely to be in for a long night, as they were given the runaround by Costa Rica on Tuesday, a team the United States hammered 6-0 in their November friendly. If they can avoid a similar mauling in Texas, the underdogs will be content.