When FC Dallas forward Blas Perez stepped onto the pitch halfway through his team's match against the LA Galaxy last Sunday it represented his first bit of competitive football since suffering a foot injury while on national team duty with Panama in June.
The injury wasn’t expected to sideline him for any length of time, yet here we are, two months and 12 games later. Perez’ return merits mention in this space because he will be front and centre (literally) to his country’s chances of beating Canada in the upcoming World Cup qualifier on September 7.
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Blas Perez. Journeyman. The 31-year-old has played for clubs in Panama, Uruguay, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, the UAE and now the United States. The career summary in the sidebar on his Wikipedia page has an Ali Gerba-esque feel to it, if not for the fact the Panamanian looks to have been more adept at scoring goals wherever in the world he landed.
One of those goals was the wonder strike that helped Panama make an emphatic statement of intent against Honduras in the third round of Concacaf World Cup qualifying. Yes, they were the darlings of the 2011 Gold Cup, and yes, even Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl tipped them to qualify for the big tournament in 2014, but marching into the qualifying incumbents' home field and thumping them by what should have been more than two goals? Unexpected.
Based on data at soccerway.com, Perez has accounted for a quarter of the goals Panama has scored since the start of last year's Gold Cup. In total, he's suited up 57 times for his country and has scored 22 goals for them. Heck, he's tied for the FC Dallas scoring lead this season despite having missed about half of it. So yes, he’s an important part of the teams he plays for in the most measurable way - goals in the opposing net. Unfortunately, Canada’s chances of beating Panama are diminished now that he'll likely be on the field.
Properly supporting your favourite team contains many low points, and I can only assume I wasn’t the only regular follower of the Canadian national team periodically scanning FC Dallas match results while pretending I wasn't really wishing Perez would stay hurt.
Whatever was keeping him on the sidelines so much longer than expected now appears to be gone. FC Dallas manager Schellas Hyndman told reporters after the game on Sunday that he originally wanted to ease Perez back with about 30 minutes of action, but an injury to Fabián Castillo forced him to give the returning forward more minutes. The MLSsoccer.com match report said Perez' "rust was apparent to everyone." But Canada supporters would be silly to bank on it still being there 10 days from now.
Panama played twice without Perez and scored zero goals. One of those games was against Portugal in Portugal, the other was a bit of a lark against the Uruguay U23 in July. Either way, Canada manager Stephen Hart may want to put aside the DVD of the Panama-Portugal game he says he has and search for some quality video of Panama's demolition of Honduras in June, a game where Perez scored twice. It may provide a more accurate picture of what Canada's defenders can expect on September 7.