Coach Botana’s goal is to get Panama national team into the top 8 at soccer World Cup

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Venezuelan coach in charge of Panama’s national football team, José Manuel Botana, said Thursday that his objectives in the World Cup are still to achieve the best participation of the Central American country and to get into the top 8 in the world.

“The group is motivated and prepared to make the best presentation of Panama in a World Cup. We are focused and, why not say it, ready to be among the 8 best in the world,” said the Panamanian team coach.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Panama

Botana clarified that choosing the final list of players to the World Cup was quite “difficult” and affirmed that he is taking “the best 16”.

“It is always complicated for a coach to make cuts in the squad, and making it balanced is a technical decision, and I assume the responsibility as such,” he said.

Botana has goalkeepers Jorge Hernández, Jaime Peñaloza and Sergio Alzamora; defenders  Édgar Rivas, Ricardo Ledezma and Braayan Hurst. Among the wings are Alfonso Maquensi, Ruman Milord, Abdiel Ortiz, Claudio Goodridge, Yail García and Allan Aparicio.

The list is completed by strikers Michael De León, Aquiles Campos, Nagdiel Del Rosario and Abdiel Castrellón.

Regarding the absence of Carlos Pérez, top scorer of the CONCACAF qualifying round, Botana pointed out that it was a technical decision and everything is done with the team’s “collective performance” in mind.

He said that the Panamanian team would travel next Saturday, stop in Madrid, and then continue to Slovakia to finish the preparation process for the World Cup.

“In Slovakia, we will have three friendly matches against the national teams of Morocco and Slovakia, in addition to playing against a professional club of the Slovakian league,” he said.

The Panamanians will debut on September 13 against the Czech Republic; three days later, they will face Vietnam, and close the group round against Brazil on September 19.

Regarding their rivals, Botana assured that he has studied each of them well and that his approach will be offensive, always avoiding mistakes.

“Slovakia is a mature team that plays well on the counter and the opponent’s mistakes, Vietnam is very similar to us in its cheerful game, and Brazil is the favorite, and the only thing I can assure you is that we will go out to compete and that they will not beat us, as they did in the last World Cup,” he said.