Tim Weah's reckless red cancels out brilliant Folarin Balogun, leaving USMNT teetering: Winners & Losers in Copa America loss to Panama

There's a scene in the sports movie "The Replacements" that seems fitting. It's a comedy about American football, yes, but this scene will perfectly encapsulate how the U.S. men's national team will be feeling after Thursday night's shocking 2-1 loss to Panama.

In the scene, Keanu Reeves' character talks about quicksand - not the literal kind, the metaphorical kind.

"You're playing and you think everything is going fine," he says during a heartfelt talk with his team. "Then one thing goes wrong. And then another. And another. You try to fight back, but the harder you fight, the deeper you sink. Until you can't move, you can't breathe, because you're in over your head. Like quicksand."

That's precisely what Thursday night was for the USMNT: quicksand. Every mistake led to another. Every wrong was followed up by another one. And, in the end, as hard as they fought, there was no preventing the sinking, deeper and deeper.

It was a nightmare for the USMNT's own doing, and that's why it will hurt even more. This was all so ... avoidable. The USMNT knew exactly what they were in for, exactly what they would face in terms of Panama's attack and physicality - and they messed it up anyway.

Tim Weah's early red card set the tone, and it wasn't the one the USMNT wanted. Weah will take most of the blame, but he wasn't the only one perpetrator; from top to bottom, the U.S. wasn't wily enough to navigate everything that happened after the red card. Individual mistakes, moments of rage, the inability to close out a game - it was all there, and it explains the dire circumstances in which the USMNT finds themselves in this tournament.

Now, they'll have to fight for their lives against Uruguay next Monday. It's still in their hands, of course, but this Copa America may have just slipped away on Thursday night in Atlanta. The USMNT isn't totally buried, but the push to get out of this metaphorical quicksand will only get harder.

GOAL examines the winners and losers of Thursday night's match.