United States Defeats Panama in Gregg Berhalter Debut as Manager
The Gregg Berhalter era as manager of the U.S. men’s national soccer team started with a 3-0 victory over Panama on Sunday in a friendly played in Glendale, Arizona at State Farm Stadium.
Berhalter is the former manager of the Columbus Crew in Major League Soccer and was named to the position of U.S. manager December 4 replacing David Sarachan who took the interim manager position in November of 2017 after Jurgen Klinsmann and his replacement Bruce Arena failed to qualify the United States for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Djordje Mihailovic and Christian Ramirez scored in the 40th minute and 89th minute respectively to become the 52nd and 53rd players for the U.S. to score while debuting for the country.
Walker Zimmerman scored as well for the U.S. off a Nick Lima header. Lima was also debuting for the U.S.
Berhalter at one time played defense for the U.S. and will be tasked with breathing new life into the program. Three other players made their debuts for the U.S. team – Daniel Lovitz, Jerem Ebobisse and Corey Baird.
Gyasi Zardes, whose career was resurrected by Berhalter at Columbus a season ago, played very well laying the ball off on two occasions to Baird and Lima who just missed scoring goals in the 25th and 27th minutes.
In the 28th minute a flick to Barid from Aaron Long just went over the cross bar. Long was debuting as the team captain.
Zack Steffen the Goalkeeper of the Year for the MLS in 2018 for Columbus stopped an Edson Samms shot in the 56th minute. He made three saves prior to being replaced in the 74th minute by Sean Johnson who made one save.
On Saturday, the U.S. plays next against Costa Rica in San Jose, California at Avaya Stadium.
