Panama beats United States in shootout to reach Gold Cup final
Panama beat the United States 5-4 in a shootout in the Gold Cup semifinals at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego on Wednesday night.
Jesus Ferreira cancelled out Iván Anderson's extra-time strike for Panama to send the game to penalties with the match tied 1-1 and Thomas Christiansen's side won it from the spot to hand interim U.S. coach B.J. Calaghan his first loss since taking over national team duties.
The U.S. started strong and hit the post through Cade Cowell in the opening minutes, but it was Panama that looked better as the half wore on with the visitors having a classy goal ruled out for offside as the game went to the break tied 0-0.
The balance of play levelled out in the second half and Brandon Vazquez shot over the crossbar from a Cowell cutback in the 52nd minute right before Ismael Díaz saw his close-range header palmed away by Matt Turner. In extra time, Anderson put Panama in front with a clever move to beat Turner near the top of the area before finishing into an empty net, but Ferreira added to his Gold Cup leading goals tally with a well-placed volley from Jordan Morris' header back across the box to tie the game at one apiece.
Orlando Mosquera saved a penalty from the USMNT's Cristian Roldan before Adalberto Carrasquilla beat Turner from the penalty spot in sudden death of the shootout to send Panama to its third Gold Cup final in the country's history.
Panama will face the winner of Wednesday's other semifinal between Jamaica and Mexico at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
It was looking similar to the U.S. match against Canada in the quarterfinals on Sunday when the Canadians went up 2-1 in extra time before the Americans got the equalizer and won the penalty shootout with two Turner saves.
This was the first time the USMNT went to extra time in consecutive matches, and it had never played extra time twice in the same tournament.
The U.S. dodged a possible penalty in the fourth minute of regulation stoppage time when video review determined Djordje Mihailovic did not commit a handball.
