Copa America: 'It hurts' says USA captain Pulisic following 2-1 loss to Panama

ATLANTA: The United States of America lost 2-1 against Panama in their second group fixture of the 2024 Copa America in a game where the hosts had been reduced to ten minutes early in the first half.

Following the loss, USA captain Christian Pulisic reflected on his sides performance.

"A win tonight would have put us in a great position and, unfortunately, the opposite happened. It sucks. It hurts," said Pulisic in the post match interview.

USA won their first game of the group stage but the loss against Panama puts the side in a difficult position as they will now have to win against record winners of the competition, Uruguay in their final game of the Group stages in order to qualify.

Their upcoming opponents have been in top notch form winning 5-0 against Bolivia in their last encounter.

"We have to go, and we have to represent our country with passion, pride. We have to go and play the best game of our lives, and that's it. We want to go, we want to win, and we want to continue in this competition," added the US captain.

The USA was pushed onto the back foot very early in the game when forward Weah was sent off in the 18th minute. Former Arsenal player Folarin Balogun opened the scoring and gave the ten-man USA side the lead in the 22nd minute.

The hosts could not hold on to the lead for too long as they conceded a goal just four minutes later which tied the game at 1-1. Despite a great defensive display on show, the team could not hold on to the one point and conceded a goal by Jose Fajardo in the 83rd minute and went on to lose 2-1.

"Tim got bumped, he got checked, and he reacted. He apologized to the group. And I think he understands what a difficult position he put the group in. Nonetheless, it happened and as a result, we lost this game and we're gonna have to move on and figure out how to win the next game," U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said in his post match press conference.