NAS­SAU, Ba­hamas – The open­ing day of the CON­CA­CAF Beach Soc­cer Cham­pi­onship de­liv­ered thrilling en­coun­ters as both Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Ba­hamas suf­fered nar­row de­feats in penal­ty shootouts. The Unit­ed States and Pana­ma emerged vic­to­ri­ous in their re­spec­tive match­es af­ter hard-fought bat­tles that end­ed dra­mat­i­cal­ly here Tues­day.

The Unit­ed States clinched a cru­cial point af­ter de­feat­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go 4-1 in a penal­ty shootout. The match end­ed 2-2 in reg­u­la­tion time, with nei­ther side able to break the dead­lock in ex­tra time.

Alessan­dro Canale gave the US an ear­ly lead, scor­ing in the 6th minute of the first pe­ri­od. How­ev­er, Trinidad and To­ba­go re­spond­ed swift­ly, with Aki­no­la Gre­go­ry lev­el­ling the score just three min­utes lat­er.

The Stars and Stripes re­gained the lead in the sec­ond pe­ri­od when Gabe Sil­veira con­vert­ed a penal­ty kick in the 7th minute. But Gre­go­ry struck again for the So­ca War­riors, net­ting his sec­ond goal with just four min­utes re­main­ing in the third pe­ri­od to force ex­tra time.

With no ad­di­tion­al goals in ex­tra time, the match went to penal­ties. U.S. goal­keep­er Chris Toth proved to be the hero, mak­ing two cru­cial saves to se­cure a 4-1 shootout vic­to­ry and the full point for his team.

The Ba­hamas suf­fered heart­break in front of their home crowd as Pana­ma edged them 4-3 in a penal­ty shootout af­ter a 2-2 draw in reg­u­la­tion.

The hosts start­ed strong, with Creven Fer­gu­son open­ing the scor­ing in the 7th minute of the first pe­ri­od. Wood Jul­mis dou­bled the Ba­hamas’ lead in the 10th minute of the sec­ond pe­ri­od, send­ing the home fans in­to cel­e­bra­tion.

How­ev­er, Pana­ma mount­ed a spir­it­ed come­back. Al­fon­so Maque­n­si pulled one back in the 9th minute of the sec­ond pe­ri­od, and Al­ber­to Kel­ly equal­ized in the 4th minute of the third pe­ri­od, send­ing the match in­to ex­tra time.

The Ba­hamas had a gold­en op­por­tu­ni­ty to win the game in the dy­ing sec­onds of ex­tra time, but Lesly St. Fleur missed a penal­ty, send­ing the match to a shootout. Both teams were flaw­less through the first three penal­ty kicks, but St. Fleur’s miss in the fifth round proved cost­ly. Maque­n­si stepped up and con­vert­ed his at­tempt to se­cure a 4-3 shootout vic­to­ry for Pana­ma.

CMC