2023-07-17 05:44:37
SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles. / 07.16.2023 23:44:37
Panama’s coach, Thomas Christiansen, congratulated his players for their performance in Sunday’s Concacaf Gold Cup Final, in which they lost 1-0 to Mexico wasting his third chance to lift the title.
“We gave everything we had in today’s game, down to the last drop of blood. The team died standing up,” said the Spanish-Danish coach at the post-crash press conference at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles (California). .
Panama, the great revelation of the tournament, resisted for 88 minutes the attacks of a Tri supported by the vast majority of the more than 70,000 fans in the stands.
As the match approached extra time, the young striker Santiago Giménez he took advantage of the space conceded behind by Panama to launch a withering counterattack and score the goal that gave Mexico its ninth regional crown.
“We had our options but we faced a Mexico that went from less to more and I want to congratulate them on this Gold Cup,” Christiansen said.
Undefeated so far in the tournament, Panama confirmed itself as the big surprise by eliminating the host and current champion, the United States, on penalties on Wednesday. “We don’t come in as fresh as other games,” Christiansen said of the wear and tear of the 120 minutes played against Team USA.
“There is nothing I can blame my players for. They have had a fantastic tournament (…) Playing in front of 70,000 Mexicans in Los Angeles was not easy and the team stood up at all times,” remarked Christiansen, who in his career as DT he also directed Leeds United of England, among other clubs.
The coach, whom Panama kept in charge after being left out of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, spared no praise for his players. “I told them to feel proud of everything they had achieved, for the compliments from all over the world and for the football they had presented,” he added.
The Central American team had previously played in two other Gold Cup Finals that ended in defeats against the United States in 2005 and 2013.
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