Mexico announces friendly against Panama.

Mexico have announced their second friendly in preparation for the Gold Cup and third friendly of the summer, as they will play Panama on June 30th. The game will be played in the Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. Mexico will be playing a friendly against Iceland on May 29th in Arlington, Texas before playing the CONCACAF Nations League finals on June 3rd and 6th. Mexico will be playing Costa Rica in the Semifinal in June 3rd and depending on the result, either the final or the third place game on June 6th. Both matches will be played in Denver. Mexico will then start to concentrate on the Gold Cup by facing Honduras on June 12th in Atlanta Georgia, and now Panama on June 30th.

Mexico and Panama have had an interesting rivalry that increased after several classic matches in the Gold Cup. Panama had one of their most important moments when they beat Mexico twice in the 2013 Gold Cup (In the group stages and the semifinal), their only victories against the senior team. Later in the year it was Panama and Mexico fighting for spot in the World Cup playoffs, and Mexico earned a memorable 2-1 win in Estadio Azteca with a bicycle kick goal by Raul Jimenez, in one of the greatest goals in Mexican soccer history. A couple of days later Mexico lost in Costa Rica, but Panama also lost to the United States at home, eliminating them and giving Mexico that playoff qualification against New Zealand, who they beat to qualify to the World Cup in Brazil.

In 2015 another memorable match happened when Mexico and Panama faced each other in the semifinal, and after a great match from Panama and a terrible one from Mexico it looked like once again Panama was going to win 1-0, even when they were down to 10 players after a controversial red card. Mexico however got the tie on a super controversial penalty kick. Mexico then won on another penalty and then went on to win the tournament.

Mexico dominated Panama once again when they faced each other in the Nations League and Mexico defeated Panama by a 3-1 score in Estadio Azteca and then 3-0 in Panama City, Panama. Mexico will be playing in Group A of the Gold Cup along with Curacao, El Salvador, and the winner of a four team playoff. Panama is in Group D along with Honduras, Qatar, and Grenada.