Belgium blasts Panama: 3 takeaways from the 3-0 win

After a quiet first 45 minutes, Belgium showed their quality and blew past Panama 3-0 in the opener of Group G. Here are three takeaways from the match.

For the first forty-five minutes of their nation’s World Cup debut Panama held their own against Belgium, one of the tournament’s favorites and third-ranked team in the FIFA rankings, but after half time the talent gulf proved too large to overcome as Dries Mertens opened the scoring with a bullet on the edge of the box just after the second half started.

From there Belgium, who had looked flustered with Panama’s defending and counter attacking added two more courtesy of Romelu Lukaku. However, as clean as the score line was for the Belgian defense, referee Janny Sikazwe’s book was most assuredly not. Here are three takeaways.

1. Panama is here to play

Debutantes at the World Cup in the 21st Century are a mixed bag with the nadir being China who in 2002 scored zero and conceded nine on there way to losing all three group games. On the flip side there is Senegal who in that same tournament upset defending champion France in their opener and made a run all the way to the quarterfinals.

It is obviously too early to predict whether Panama will do one or the other and though Panama’s result today puts them on pace to match the aforementioned China team it would not be fair to say Belgium dominated them either. For the first 45 minutes, Panama flustered Belgium’s firepower with tough defending and tick-tack fouling (more on that later) to disrupt rhythm and defended for their lives. If they can defend like that against England and Tunisia whilst generating more successful counters, Panama has a punchers chance at points.

2. Fouls, Fouls, and more Fouls

Soccer purists should have looked away from today’s middle fixture which featured a combined thirty-five fouls and eight yellow cards from referee Janny Sikazwe who looked to have lost control of the game after Mertens opened the scoring with five of the cards occuring afterwards. This included a yellow to Kevin de Bruyne (who also nabbed an assist on the first of Lukaku’s goals) who lashed out on Luis Tejada rather dangerously and was lucky to avoid a sending off.

There was a method to this though, as by fouling Panama succeeded most of the time in disrupting Belgium’s attacking flow and by exchanging tit for tat with a lesser opponent, Belgium showed they were not going to be bullied in a similar manner to Brazil yesterday against Switzerland.

Something to watch out for should Belgium perform to expectations is whether manager Roberto Martinez rotates his squad to preseve de Bruyne, center-back Jan Vertonghen, and full-back Thomas Meunier to preserve their eligibility for later games.

3. Slow Start, Beautiful Finish for Belgium’s firepower

For much of the first half Belgium struggled to create, a mind-boggling prospect on a team featuring de Bruyne, Eden Hazard, and Mertens but once those three got going, each contributed to a goal. For Mertens, his wonder-shot on the edge of the box broke open the game in the 47th minute and showed excellent awareness of where the ball was while Panama’s defense reset.

Though neither de Bruyne or Hazard ended up on the score sheet each of them put the ball in the right place for striker Romelu Lukaku to put it past Panamanian keeper Jaime Penedo with de Bruyne’s wizardry coming first on a ball Lukaku headed in the 69th minute and Hazard putting the ball in the path of the Manchester United striker in the 75th minute which if it had been anywhere else, given Lukaku’s awkward finish may not have gone into the net.

Next: Each State's Nominee for America's Team

The key going forward will be for Belgium to harness that creativity earlier in matches and hope their defense can do as good a job as it did today in not getting nipped on the counter attack. Languid starts against better opposition however will see this Golden Generation of talent once again go to waste. Fortunately for the Red Devils, they play Tunisia next which is another opportunity to iron out these sorts of kinks.

Panama’s next match against England however, will offer them no such reprieve and they will have to hope their defense can last longer than today. If these teams replicate their performances one will be on the plane back home and the other will punch their ticket to the knockout stage.