El Salvador vs. Panama 10/7/21 CONCACAF World Cup Qualifications Soccer Pick, Odds, and Prediction

El Salvador and Panama face off on Thursday in a CONCACAF World Cup qualifier at Cuscatlan Stadium. The last time these two teams faced off was in 2017 and Panama was able to win 1-0. 

Panama currently sits in 4th place in the standings having picked up five points. Panama has played to draws against Costa Rica and Mexico, and the win was against Jamaica. In that game against Jamaica, the offense was elite scoring three goals, and that led to the easy victory. In that game, the scoring was opened by Andres Andrade in the 14th minute, and they cruised after that. In the last game against Mexico, Panama opened up the scoring in the 28th minute, and it looked like they might be able to pick up three points. In the 76th minute, Mexico had a defensive breakdown, and that led to the loss. 

On the other side of this matchup is El Salvador who sits in 7th place in the standings having picked up two points. They opened up the qualifying with draws to Honduras and the United States before losing to Canada 3-0 in the last game. By the 12th minute against Canada, they were already down 2-0, and there are clear issues with this defense. They also played a friendly against Guatemala in late September, and they lost 2-0.  The defense again gave up two goals early, and in this game, they can’t have the defense struggling early again. The defense is going to need to try to get that first 30 minutes without a goal. 

Panama is the better team, and they are going to get the goal-scoring going early in this game. El Salvador doesn’t have any goal scoring options to make the comeback in this one, and Panama will come away with the victory.