Just a note that Mexico is playing in front of empty or near-empty stadiums in all but one of their matches because of FIFA sanctions over homophobic chants, not covid. Covid will cap likely capacity at half for the US match (unless there are more sanctions, which is possible, allegedly the chant occurred v Costa Rica even with 1,000 people there, though I didn’t hear it) so there should be 40,000 people there.
Canada is trying to be the second team to go unbeaten in this stage of qualifying and obviously it is going to take an extra four matches to do so. They are also trying to fight their way into Pot 3 of the World Cup draw. So there is still motivation there. It sounds trivial, but Herdman has been really good about getting them to care about little things like that to keep the level up. If they don’t lose in Costa Rica (or at home to Jamaica, to be fair), I think they will still be pretty motivated in Panama even if there is nothing to play for. Canada has had a lot of squad rotation and still aren’t quite over the line, so that last-day team shouldn’t be too experimental, it will be players who have played a role to date and those depth players should be trying to prove they belong in the 23 next November when they get a chance to start against an opponent with a lot to play for.
Panama is a much better team than they were against Curacao. They’ve done a very good job turning the squad over from the old side that went to Russia. They had a little dip in this past window, but I didn't think their play was significantly poorer. They were the better side against Costa Rica and they could have gotten something out of the Azteca. As noted, they’re big and athletic.
If Mexico beats the U.S. and Panama beats Honduras, the pressure is on the Americans to win at home against Panama. A draw leaves the Americans with a lot of work to do heading down to Costa Rica where they have traditionally struggled.
