CATHERINE HALL, St James — Group A leaders Panama made it four wins in a row yesterday when they scratched out a 1-0 victory over nine-man Trinidad and Tobago in their penultimate first-round game at the Montego Bay Sports Complex.
Panama were handed the winning goal in the 70th minute when goalkeeper Jason Welsh pushed a cross from Michael Murillo back into his own goal, even as his team battled hard to hang on.
Welsh had made several good saves earlier to keep Trinidad in the game after they went down to 10 men in the 23rd minute after Kadeem Corbin was sent off after picking up a second yellow card in eight minutes.
Akeem Humphrey was shown a straight red card in the 70th minute after he fouled Panama’s Edson Samms just outside the box to further reduce his team’s chances of even earning a point from the encounter.
The win saw Panama move to 12 points and ensured at least a place in the play-offs, should they inexplicably fail to win the group and earn the automatic place for the World Cup in New Zealand.
The game was a timid affair with little or no flair as Trinidad were content to sit behind the ball for long periods, allowing Panama to slowly build up play.
Panama outshot the Caribbean champions 14 to three and restricted the twin-island republic to one shot for the entire 90 minutes.
At half-time in the evening’s second game, Guatemala led the pointless Aruba 1-0, while Jamaica were down to face the USA in the last game of the triple header.
– Paul Reid
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Panama on brink
of Under-20 World Cup qualification
