U.S. men's national team head coach Gregg Berhalter defended his team's performance in their 2-1 loss to Panama in the Copa America on Thursday, arguing that they were good enough to come out with a point despite the disadvantage of Timothy Weah's 18th minute red card.
"I know the result is really disappointing," Berhalter said in his post-match press conference. "I can't fault the effort of the group, especially after going down a man. The guys dug in and we were close to coming out with a point but it's a shame because there was more in this game and silly decision by Timmy that leaves us shorthanded … One lapse, we got punished for it."
Weah received a red card for shoving Panama's Roderick Miller, which led Panama to dominate in possession and shots for the rest of the game. Though the hosts responded with a goal just four minutes later from Folarin Balogun, Cesar Blackman scored the equalizer for Los Canaleros in the 26th minute. Panama eventually got their game-winning goal in the 82nd minute from substitute Jose Fajardo, which gave them enough of an advantage to survive Adalberto Carrasquilla's red card just four minutes later.
As a result, the USMNT will be without Weah for the group stage finale against Uruguay on Monday. Berhalter said Weah apologized to his teammates, and the winger also issued an apology on social media post-match.
Panama played a predictably physical style that seemed to trip up the USMNT, though Berhalter said his team were prepared for the opposition's game plan. Instead, he chose to single out referee Ivan Barton for his decision-making.
"We talked beforehand about the tendencies of this referee," the head coach said. "We knew what he's capable of and to be honest, I think we played right into his hands and we made that decision pretty easy."
He also criticized Barton's decision not to present Blackman with a yellow card for his collision with goalkeeper Matt Turner, which eventually forced the USMNT to make a halftime substitution through injury. It is currently unclear how severe Turner's injury is.
"It was a nice challenge by the attacker that didn't even get a caution, which is really surprising," Berhalter said. "Think about that. He knocks Matt [Turner] out of the game and nothing."
The loss leaves the USMNT equal on points in Group C with Panama and most likely needing a win from their matchup against Uruguay, one of the dark horses to win the Copa America, to advance to the knockout stages. Berhalter downplayed the high stakes of their group stage finale, shying away from the must-win label.
"I think we're all getting ahead of ourselves a little bit in terms of how this whole thing's going to play out," he said. "What we know, the facts are that Panama's going to play Bolivia and we're going to play Uruguay. That's clear. We don't know exactly what we're going to need from the game, but we're going to go in with the intentions of trying to play a very good game and try to get the result we need to advance and it's really as simple as that."
