Friday Night Lights
- Updated: October 6, 2017
Photo credit: U.S. Soccer
Jozy Altidore scored and assisted for the U.S. in a 4-0 rout of Panama in Friday’s World Cup Qualifier at Orlando City Stadium in Orlando, Fla.
Altidore scored on a Christian Pulisic pass in the 19th minute then struck from the spot in the 43rd minute. Pulisic opened the scoring inside of eight minutes while Bobby Wood closed the account in the 63rd minute.
Tim Howard needed to make only two stops to collect the clean sheet.
The U.S. opened the match with a flourish when Pulisic took a pass from Altidore and circled Jaime Penedo before tucking it inside the far post in the eighth minute.
Eleven minutes later, Pulisic was the provider when he put a banana pass in front of Altidore, who tapped it through to make it soften the cushion.
With halftime approaching, Wood was keen to make it a three-goal lead when he ran at Penedo before he was hauled down inside the area, setting up Altidore for the penalty strike.
Wood eventually broke through after the hour when he corralled a feed from Paul Arriola, turned, and sank his shot past the dive of Penedo.
With the win, the U.S. solidified their hold on third place in the Hexagonal. They’ll aim to book their ticket to Russia 2018 on Tuesday at Trinidad & Tobago in their final qualifier. Kickoff is 8:00pm ET, and will be televised on beIN Sports.
Related Posts
About Brian O'Connell
