Bermuda 2 Panama 2

Bermuda under-17 women came so close to upstaging favourites Panama and finishing top of their World Cup qualifying group on Wednesday night.

The Lady Gombey Warriors had been forced to do it the hard way, fighting back from a goal down to take a 2-1 lead before an 83rd minute Panama equaliser dampened the vibrant atmosphere.

The draw means Bermuda must wait for matches in the other five groups to conclude on Monday to see if they have secured a spot as one of the best two group runners-up and progress to the next stage.

A passionate home crowd of 1,196 fans was silenced in the eighth minute when forward Shaday Mow put Panama in front from the penalty spot. That lead lasted just nine minutes, with Bermuda equalising through the impressive Daley Outerbridge, who slotted home nicely in the seventeenth minute after being put through by Avery Taylor.

With the game finely balanced 1-1 at half-time, Bermuda coach Gary Adams replaced Tayte Glasgow with Priya Dill and the change had an instant impact with Dill putting Bermuda ahead just two minutes after coming on.

Goalkeeper Kyra Simmons was called into action on a number of occasions to preserve Bermuda’s lead, but she was eventually beaten in the 83rd minute by Cristabella Ríos, who prodded home from inside the six-yard box after Gabriela Rodriguez’s floated free kick.

Bermuda, ranked far lower than their rivals in Concacaf, continued to battle bravely for a winning goal with Outerbridge having her shot saved in the fifth minute of stoppage time, but they now face the most anxious of waits to see if their World Cup journey continues.

Adams, who was pleased with the effort from his team, is hopeful that his team have done enough to proceed to the next round of qualifiers.

“I’ve done the maths and we’re at a good average right now andt it’s going to be very difficult for any other second place team to match what we’ve done,” the coach told The Royal Gazette.

“That doesn’t guarantee anything, but at least we’re in a very good position to make it difficult for somebody to match us.

“We just have to see how the other results go our way and we’ll know that by Monday. I’m extremely proud of the girls, the coaching staff and everything that we’ve done in the last couple of months. We got a chance to witness tonight all the hard work they put in.”

Adams made an inspired decision at half time to replace Glasgow with Dill and switch Riley Khan to right back, with his decision made to protect the departing player.

“While this is still a football game, we also need to be cognisant of the fact that they are young girls,” the coach said.

“They are humans and we just felt that one of our players was maybe mentally just not in the right space. The healthy thing to do was not put her under more pressure.

“Without Tayte Glasgow, we wouldn’t be here. She had an excellent two games, so while she might have been upset, she understands that she played a vital role in us getting here and she can keep her head high. Sometimes it’s just the highs and lows, you’ve got to protect them from themselves.”

Outerbridge, scorer of four goals in the last two matches, was delighted to find the target against tough opponents.

“It felt great to be on the scoresheet, as always,” she said.

“I think we could have done way better than we did. We kept our standards high as we were supposed to and we all had a great game.

“Panama did get into our heads, so we did drop just a little bit, but we kept giving and our supporters made the game even better. Knowing that we had a twelfth man in the stands pushed us to perform.”

Just like the coach, the forward has belief that they have done enough to make it to the final stage of qualification.

“It’s going to be very hard to see if we qualified or not, even though I knew in my head that we had made it through,” Outerbridge added.

“This time if we make it through we’ll try to top our group and qualify for the World Cup.”

SCORERS

Bermuda: Outerbridge 17, Dill 47

Panama: Mow 8 pen, Rios 83

TEAMS

Bermuda (4-3-3) K Simmons—A Barry, Z Showers, J Sealey (sub: A James, 75), T Glasgow (sub: P Dill, 46min) — N Samuels, A Taylor, E Welch (sub: M. Daponte, 77) — R Khan, M Gibbons-Thomas, D Outerbridge. Substitutes not used: S Denkins, S Baisden-Scott, Z Evans-Waldron, N Medeiros, K Deane, K Curling, C Dowling. Booked: Outerbridge, Sealey, Khan, Taylor, Paynter (coach)

Panama (3-1-4-2): C Aparicio—C Ríos, K Zapata, I Rendino (sub: J Alvarado, 86) — A Perez (sub: V Batista, 54) — G Distancia, Y Magallon, A Ortega, G Rodriguez—S Mow, P Wakefield (sub: N Zafrani, 54). Substitutes not used: Y Batista, G Chen, N Farberoff, R Gabay, S Gutiérrez, A Potvin, A Samudio. Booked: Magallon.

Referee: S Stockman (Costa Rica).