USMNT falls to Panama in penalty shootout in Gold Cup semifinals: What’s next for the U.S.

Panama’s men’s national soccer team dashed the U.S. men’s national team’s hopes of advancing to their 13th CONCACAF Gold Cup final, defeating the U.S. 1(5)-1(4) in a penalty shootout Wednesday at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego. Here’s what you need to know:

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

It was a stunning result for the U.S., which lost at home to a CONCACAF opponent for the first time since September 2019. It is the first time since 2015 the USMNT has not played in the Gold Cup final. Realistically, it was a deserved result.

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Panama looked in control for the majority of the game against a U.S. team that needed 120 minutes and penalties to get through Canada in the quarterfinals just three days ago.

This U.S. team was missing all of its highest-profile and best players, except for goalkeeper Matt Turner, whose two saves in the penalties against Canada saw the U.S. through to Wednesday’s semifinal. Turner had another save in penalties this time around, but it wasn’t enough.

Even playing with its ‘B’ team, the U.S. will be extremely disappointed not to have advanced out of the semifinals. In reality, the U.S. seemed to lack some of the aggressiveness and bite in midfield and struggled to generate chances in the knockout rounds. — Tenorio

Outside of James Sands, who made a good claim to back-up Tyler Adams as the USMNT No. 6, it is difficult to point to performers who clearly pushed into the ‘A’ team depth chart coming out of this tournament.

Jalen Neal is a young center back who played a lot of minutes and continues to show his potential and Ferreira’s seven goals in the tournament will keep him in the conversation behind Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi, but overall the majority of the top U.S. roster will be made