Perez: The time is now for Panama

Blas Perez isn’t shy about dirtying a shirt for the cause, battling, putting himself in among the flying elbows and flashing studs. The veteran striker personifies Panama’s football. And even though his goals aren’t

always masterworks of high artistry, he always seems to score them, by hook or by crook.

“We work hard, very hard,” the journeyman poacher, playing in his third FIFA World Cup™ qualifying campaign, told FIFA.com. “There’s a union, a harmony in this Panama team,” added the 31-year-old, currently with Major League Soccer outfit FC Dallas in the autumn of a much-travelled career. “We don’t fight with each other, we’re not greedy, and when we enter the pitch, we do it as one. Our solidarity is our strength.”

This fundamental togetherness that Perez describes has seen the Canaleros power their way into the final ‘Hexagonal’ round of Brazil 2014 qualifying in North, Central America and the Caribbean. It’s a long way from the South Africa 2010 preliminaries, when they flopped ignominiously at the first hurdle, losing what Perez called a “total disaster” to El Salvador. “We have a different mentality now,” added the forward, who currently leads the team in scoring, partnering all-time top marksman Luis Tejada to great effect. “We believe in ourselves and we have a lot of veterans, like myself, who can help show the way to the younger ones.”

Panama’s ascent to the upper reaches of the region’s football is a relatively recent phenomenon. They burst onto the scene, almost from nowhere, in 2005 by reaching the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, eventually losing a penalty shoot-out to hosts and regional powers USA.

They were a gritty side of overachievers then, and they remain so today. Current national team coach Julio Dely Valdes, who captained the famous ‘05 team, has built on that early taste of the big stage. “Now [Brazil 2014] is our best chance of qualifying for a World Cup,” the former PSG and Malaga man remarked.

“I think he’s right,” agreed Perez, who took part in the 2007 and 2009 Gold Cups, team top scorer in the former and selected for a ‘Best XI’ in the latter. “We have every reason to believe that this is our year,” he said, a hopeful note chiming in his voice as he contemplated a first-ever trip to world football’s biggest stage. “We’re trying to put it all together to achieve our dream, to put Panama into the World Cup.”