USA vs. Panama, 2022 World Cup qualifying: SSFC Man of the Match

The United States Men’s National Team is in spitting distance of clinching qualification for the 2022 World Cup thanks to an overwhelming 5-1 win over Panama in Orlando on Sunday night. The team has secured no worse than fourth place in the group which is enough to make the playoff match against Oceania’s group. However, the dominant score line means that they can qualify outright by doing no worse than a 5-0 loss to Costa Rica on Wednesday night.

There were a number of good performances in this match, eight of the eleven players scored higher than a seven and only one player was lower than a six. Compare this to Thursday’s draw at the Azteca, which was one of the better performances of the Hex but only two players scored over a seven on the ratings scale and you start to get a sense for the joy coming out of the match with Panama and closing in on World Cup Qualification. Not surprisingly it was Christian Pulisic and his hat trick that shone brightest of all, Pulisic earned a 9.0 rating by the community and the SSFC Man of the Match.

Pulisic buried both of his penalty kicks, the first to open the scoring and the second to put the game out of reach just before halftime, and then added a jaw dropping third in open play to cap off his hat trick.

The ratings for all the players, along with the referee and head coach Gregg Berhalter:

Christian Pulisic - 9.00

Antonne Robinson - 7.67

Paul Arriola - 7.60

Walker Zimmerman - 7.51

Tyler Adams - 7.43

Luca de la Torre - 7.32

Jesús Ferreira - 7.19

Miles Robinson - 7.02

Shaq Moore - 6.81

Yunus Musah - 6.34

Zack Steffen - 5.80

—Substitutes—

Giovanni Reyna - 7.04

Kellyn Acosta - 6.44

Aaron Long - 5.87

Gianluca Busio - 5.62

Jordan Morris - 5.62

—

Gregg Berhalter - 7.59

Referee Iván Arcides Barton Cisneros - 6.30

Hit the comments and let us know what you think of these ratings.