Panama, a small country of around 4 million people, part of the The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) still with a small professional football league, and with not a long trajectory, actually the very first national football league was celebrated in 1988 with only 6 teams, Panama has been passing a very important transformation in the sport. Today, the national league has 10 teams, much more support from the media and many panamanian players play professionally in other countries, even in Europe nowadays.
Internationally, our national team is well known as the Los Canaleros which comes from the word Canal honoring the Panama Canal.
The very first world cup I knew about was Mexico 86, but it wasn't until Italia 90 that I started to follow this important tournament. I always wished to see Panama participating, but the journey to qualify for our national team was always sad and disappointing
Going back on my memories, being just a kid, I remember those get togethers with friends of the family to watch the games of Panama, it was always hard to pass to the final stage for the World Cup qualifications, and the quantities of scores our country received was very embarrassing.
The qualification structure was as follows:
- First round: A total of 14 teams (lowest ranked teams are assigned spots 22–35) played home-and-away over two legs. The seven winners advanced to the second round.
- Second round: A total of 20 teams (second lowest ranked teams are assigned spots 9–21 and seven first round winners) played home-and-away over two legs. The ten winners advanced to the third round.
- Third round: A total of 12 teams (teams ranked 7–8 by CONCACAF and ten second round winners) played home-and-away over two legs. The six winners advanced to the fourth round.
- Fourth round: A total of 12 teams (teams ranked 1–6 by CONCACAF and six third round winners) were divided into three groups of four teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The top two teams of each group advanced to the fifth round.
- Fifth round: The six teams which had advanced from the fourth round played home-and-away round-robin matches in one single group (often referred to as the "Hexagonal"). The top three teams qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the fourth-placed team advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.
It wasn't until the qualifications for Germany 2006 that Panama finally made it to the last stage, but again couldn’t qualify and ended up last not winning any single game. Something similar is experienced for the qualifications of Brasil 2014, we made it again to the final stage, but better than the previous attempt, we end up in 5th position but still eliminated.
Writing this made me remember all those tears and frustrations, it was very difficult!
Felipe Baloy and Fidel Escobar
But the national football kept growing and the new generations are hungry of winning. For this last period, Mr. Hernan Darío Gomez aka Bolillo from Colombia, choose to accept and come to help the national team in their preparation as a the new Technical Director:
We manage to pass to the final stage, everyone worry about how this was going to end this time. Fortunately, our team played well and demonstrated a strength that never before was seen.
In the last game we faced Costa Rica in our home, the match was all the game tide 1 to 1, but a long pass from the mid field ended up in the feed of our Captain and hero Román Torres who shoot the ball with beautiful accuracy like never before to score the golden goal!
We had to wait until the minute 88 of the last game for the final verdict! We did it!
I encourage you to see the following video of that golden goal that put Panama finally in a World Cup:
Roman Torres Goal
I will never forget that night, 10 of October of 2017, the hole country turned into a huge party and celebration until the sun came up.
It is important to mention that USA National Team eliminated us in the previous qualifications, but in this last opportunity, they needed Panama to lose in order to qualify. I am sorry for the USA team but achieving the qualification by winning against Costa Rica at the same time the game’s score determined the elimination of USA, made the celebration more enjoyable.
This is how the last stage scores ended:
The world cup is about to start in June 14th, and the panamanian team is already in Russia practicing and preparing themselves for their very first participation.
The group we face is not an easy one, actually, there is no such a thing as an easy group in a World Cup, but I trust that Panama will keep showing that strength that impressed us all and the world will respect that.
Whatever happens, we will continue to be happy for this opportunity, in fact Panama has nothing to lose and so much to win. It will be very amazing if at least 1 important team from a very important league ends up interested in any of our players.
Definitely, this World Cup will mark an important positive change for the Panamanian football!
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