Gold cup: Complacent US stumble on after first ever defeat by Panama

United States midfielder Landon Donovan said his team were punished for being complacent in their shock 2-1 defeat to Panama.

The US were hit with two goals inside the opening 36 minutes and were unable to avoid their first defeat to Panama despite a battling second half at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

"You can't start that way - for some reason we were a little lackadaisical, a little complacent early. We can't start that way, that's the overwhelming, obvious point," a downbeat Donovan said after the game.

"They started well, took the initiative, made some plays well early on, it took as a while to get into the game and the second half was very good but when you dig yourself a hole that big sometimes you can't get out of it.

"Sometimes you just come out flat for whatever reason - at this level and against a good team you can't do that. Some nights you come out flat and don't get punished but other times you do - we learned a valuable lesson," he said.

The embarrassing result is a blow to the self-esteem of the four-time Gold Cup-winning US team which this time two years ago had enjoyed a successful run in the Confederations Cup, defeating current world champions Spain.

The US had never lost at the group stage in the 12-team tournament for North and Central America and the Caribbean which is usually a routine process of elimination for the minnows.

"It's bound to happen at some point," said Donovan of the broken record. "Concacaf teams are getting better and better, that's a pretty good team we played against."

It would require an even bigger upset for the US not to progress to the last eight, however. They need to beat Guadeloupe, who have lost both their games, tomorrow in Kansas City.

"We have to turn around and make sure we are ready to play," said Donovan, who spent part of the 2009/2010 season on loan from LA Galaxy at Everton.

"We are still fine, we just have to make sure we learned some lessons."

Earlier, Canada had kept their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals of the Gold Cup alive, scraping a 1-0 win against ten-man Guadeloupe.

Guadeloupe were forced to play almost the entire match a man down after Jean-Luc Lambourde was sent off with a straight red card for a wild challenge on midfielder Will Johnson in the third minute.

Canada striker Ali Gerba had an effort disallowed for offside but despite the numerical disadvantage, Guadeloupe competed well and went close to scoring in the 29th minute when the lively Brice Jovial went on a winding run and set up Thery Racon, whose shot was well saved by Canada keeper Milan Borjan.

The sides were scoreless at the break but Guadeloupe's intent was felt within a minute of the restart when Racon forced Borjan into action again with a sweetly struck effort from the edge of the area.

Canada finally got their breakthrough in the 51st minute when Stephane Zubar was judged, perhaps harshly, to have pulled down Gerba in the area and Dwayne De Rosario converted from the penalty spot.