‘Coco’ Carrasquilla in a select group of Panamanians

Adalberto” Coco” Carrasquilla arrived at the Houston Dynamo in the 2021 season from Cartagena (the second Spanish league), and two years later he won his first title in the orange institution, winning the last US Open Cup in American football. Wednesday night.

Houston Dynamo came out of a four-year title drought with a victory in the final against Inter Miami (1-2), in which Leonel Messi was absent due to injury.

The last time Houston won the title was the US Open Cup in the 2018 season, having in its ranks another Panamanian, central defender Adolfo Machado, who came to Dynamo from Saprissa from Costa Rica.

And although Machado did not play in the final, he received a medal as the champion of the US Open, because he was a member of the team.

This means that only Adolfo Machado and now “Coco” Carrasquilla are Panamanians who have won the US Open Cup.

Few Panamanians have won soccer titles in the United States, the first to win the MLS trophy was goalkeeper Jaime Penedo with the Los Angeles Galaxy in the 2014 season.

The second Panamanian to win a soccer championship in a North American country was Román Torres.

The former captain of the Panamanian team managed to win the title twice with the Seattle Sounders in the 2016 and 2019 campaigns.

“El Mazinger” is currently the only Panamanian with two stars in MLS.

For his part, Armando Cooper also won the US Soccer title with Toronto FC in the 2017 season.