Celtic still have Cameron Carter-Vickers and Alistair Johnston involved at Copa America while some of their players trickle back in for pre-season.
Johnston’s Canada have made a strong start to Group A, competing in a 2-0 defeat to Argentina before claiming a 1-0 victory over Peru earlier this week.
Nevertheless, it was the United States’ turn last night to try and claim some points; however, they fell to a surprise 2-1 defeat against Panama on a night where former Celtic man Timothy Weah was sent off for striking his opponent in the back of the head.
Carter-Vickers came off the bench at half-time for his country; however, he was in for a tough review from Stateside media following an occasion that has thrown Group C wide open.
Cameron Carter-Vickers’ rating from the US media
Speaking on Golazo America, former United States goalkeeper Tony Meola had some strong words to say on Carter-Vickers’ display against Panama.
Speaking about his involvement, Meola said: “Cameron Carter-Vickers, whatever the lowest grade is that we wanna give a player, he was poor in the game. He almost cost the US before.”
The reason for this is that Panama had a penalty appeal that was given and then overturned by VAR following a challenge on Jose Fajardo. From the video replay, it was clear that done just about enough to pull out of the challenge, albeit there was slight contact, and it wouldn’t have been a surprise to see it given in the context of modern-day decisions.
Fajardo also got the run on Carter-Vickers for Panama’s winning goal, using some expert movement to catch the Celtic man flatfooted and then smash past Matt Turner.
In fairness to the man in question, the United States were slow to react to the break of the ball in the lead-up and were hamstrung by Weah’s 18th-minute dismissal, which meant Folarin Balogun’s opener was rendered meaningless in the end.
Now, a crunch encounter against Uruguay awaits on Sunday, where they need to win or better Panama’s result against Bolivia to guarantee themselves a slot in the quarter-finals.
Hopefully, Carter-Vickers and company can rally to put a shock defeat behind them and get themselves back on the winning trail.