As far as performances go, the U.S. U20s might want to toss Saturday’s on the trash heap and start over. Even dumpster fires provide more heat than this.

The U.S. put in a limpid display - to say the least - on Saturday in Costa Rica to open its experience at the 2017 CONCACAF Championship. Despite playing up a man for the final 68 minutes of the match, the U.S. hardly produced much of anything going forward and fell in a deserved 1-0 loss to Panama. The dangerous Panamanians enjoyed a number of scoring opportunities even after Justin Simons was sent off in the 18th minute for raking Tyler Adams’ ankle with flared studs. Adams could only go the next 13 minutes before being subbed off for Emmanuel Sabbi. He returned from the locker room at half leaning on crutches.

The U.S.’s World Cup qualification hopes are hardly dead. The U.S. still has winnable group games against Haiti and St. Kitts & Nevis before the format resets into two three-team groups. Even then, the U.S. merely needs to finish in the top two of three, so a potential second-round loss to Mexico wouldn’t even doom the U.S. to missing the U20 World Cup for the first time since 2011.

But they’ll certainly have to play worlds better than this to get there.

The U.S. struggled mightily in chance creation for the duration of the afternoon, even after Simons was given his marching papers. U.S. coach Tab Ramos arrayed his side in a 4-3-3, but the central midfield trio of Erik Palmer-Brown, Tyler Adams and Luca de la Torre stepped all over one another in their half hour together. Adams, a No. 6 on the best of days and a No. 8 on the others, was shoehorned into a bizarre box-to-box role that forced him to shoulder a large portion of the creative impetus underneath lone central forward Jeremy Ebobisse.

The result was a disjointed morass in the middle and precious little substantive interchange. Palmer-Brown, playing out of position in the No. 6 role, was typically robust defensively but lacked distributive qualities and looked unsure of his positioning in space. De la Torre suffered through a rugged afternoon and looked out of place and without a clear positional directive. And once Adams left the field, Sabbi, a forward, played in the No. 10 role for the remainder of the half. It did not work.

Ramos rejiggered his 4-3-3 for the second half, dropping Sebastian Saucedo into the hole underneath the strikers and pushing Sabbi out wide left. While Saucedo is the U.S.'s only thing approaching a true No. 10 on the roster, the move ultimately did little to spark anything meaningful up the central channel over the final 45 minutes. Instead, all of the U.S.’s best chances - in reality there were only two truly dangerous ones - came from the right flank.

The first was a cross from Brooks Lennon that met Ebobisse, who clanked his headed effort off the crossbar just out of halftime. The second came in the 87th from more or less the same spot. Right back Marlon Fossey, who along with Justen Glad represented the lone two individual bright spots, finished a 40-yard run with a cross that found Saucedo at the back post. Saucedo directed the second ball to Ebobisse, whose scuffed shot from six yards rolled into keeper Charles Taylor’s arms.

And that was more or less it. Despite the man advantage, the U.S. was largely without identity and ideas in the attacking third, relying mostly on lumped long balls and speculative crosses for scoring opportunities. Hampered by its lack of a true central playmaker for the second consecutive cycle, the U.S. lost to Panama in a 1-0 scoreline for the second consecutive CONCACAF tourney.

Panama got the only goal it’d need from Iowa Western striker Leandro Avila, who was generally the best player on the field for the duration. Avila managed to squeeze inside Fossey on the American right just outside the box and swung through on a ball with his back half-turned to goal. The ball took a slight deflection off Fossey’s leg and looped over keeper Jonathan Klinsmann and just inside the far post.

It was something of a flukey goal, but it was coming. And it was certainly deserved on balance.

Perhaps the most individually promising player on the field for the U.S. was Glad. The RSL center back was arrayed next to Orlando City’s Tommy Redding, and Glad had himself an afternoon. In lieu of danger higher upfield, he provided a few moments of danger late in the match out of pure frustration. Inside the last 10 minutes, he stung a shot for the near post from 20 yards that Taylor did well to turn aside, and he found his way into the box for a shallow cross that Ebobisse couldn’t finish.

Aside from Glad and occasionally Fossey, though, there wasn’t much of note about this match on an individual basis from the U.S.’s perspective. The midfield was confused and frequently overrun, the forward line had zero tangible link to the midfield and the flanks were wide open for probing runs by Avila and Columbus Crew midfielder Cristian Martinez. The coaching staff certainly has its work cut out for the rest of the tournament.

The good news is that chances abound for redemption. The U.S. follows this with a match against Haiti on Tuesday and finishes the group against St. Kitts & Nevis on Friday. Win both of those matches - both are winnable - and the U.S. is through to the final qualification phase.

It’ll have to be better than it was Saturday in just about every facet from front to back. Otherwise the U.S.’s qualification for this year’s U20 World Cup is in serious peril.