Gold Cup Quarterfinals - Day 2

UNITED STATES 2 JAMAICA 0

The United States finally showed up at the Gold Cup on Sunday getting a well deserved 2-0 victory over the previously unbeaten Jamaicans as they advance to the semifinals. Despite not having Landon Donovan in the starting lineup and losing Jozy Altidore to a hamstring injury 10 minutes into the match, the U.S. played easily their best match of the tournament. Sacha Klejstan and Alejandro Bedoya both made their first starts of the Gold Cup as the U.S. deployed a 4-5-1 formation instead of their more traditional 4-4-2. Clogging the midfield neutralized Jamaica's speed-game as the Reggae Boyz generated very little on offense after missing a golden opportunity in the opening minutes of the game. Dane Richards (New York Red Bulls) made a run down the right sideline before slotting a ball for Rodolph Austin. Austin's shot was mishit, but the ball ended up on the foot of San Jose's Ryan Johnson, but Tim Howard denied him from point blank range and Luton Shelton missed a wide open rebound over the bar from just beyond the top of the 6 yard box. The U.S. would settle in though, and despite Altidore's injury they slowly began to take control of the match dominating the possession game and creating a number of good opportunities. However, Donovan Ricketts (L.A. Galaxy) and the Jamaican defense, who hadn't been scored on the entire tournament continued to come up big denying good opportunities from substitute Juan Agudelo, Clint Dempsey, Klejstan and Eric Lichaj as the two teams went into the break tied at 0. It didn't take long for the U.S to finally break through in the second half though. Jermaine Jones ripped a one timer from just beyond the top of the penalty area that deflected off of defender Jermaine Taylor and past Ricketts for his first national team goal and a 1-0 lead in the 49th minute. A little while later in the 67th minute, Jones was taken down by Taylor and sent off forcing Jamaica to play the last 20+ minutes a man down. The U.S. would put the game out of reach a little over ten minutes later when Landon Donovan, on as a substitute for Bedoya, fed Juan Agudelo who shot a cross into the middle for a wide open Dempsey who coolly sidestepped Ricketts to scored his 21st career goal for the United States, and second of the tournament. The U.S., now with momentum back on their side, heads to the semifinals where they have a rematch with the Panamanian side that upset them last week.


PANAMA 1 EL SALVADOR 1 - Panama wins 5-3 on penalty kicks

For the second day in a row, a missed penalty kick in regulation cost a team a bid to the Gold Cup semifinals. Saturday it was Costa Rica, Sunday it was El Salvador. Rodolfo Zelaya saw his first-half penalty kick saved by Panama goalie Jaime Penedo. Zelaya would get a chance for redemption though when El Salvador was awarded a second penalty when he was tripped up in the box by Roman Torres. The 22 year old Alianza striker would not miss this time scoring his 4th goal of the tournament and the 11th of his international career to put El Salvador up 1-0 in the 78th minute. The lead would last into the 89th minute but Luis Tejada, who has scored in all 4 games in the tournament beat Miguel Montes to tie the game up on a controversial goal-line call. The aftermath so Panama's Blas Perez and El Salvador's Luis Anaya both sent off leaving the two teams with ten men apiece for the final 30 minutes. After a scoreless overtime, Panama dominated the shootout converting on all 5 of their attempts with goals from Nelson Barahona, Amilcar Henriquez, Anibal Godoy, Luis Renteria, and of course Tejada. William Romero, Andres Alexander Flores and Zelaya all scored in a losing effort for El Salvador. Panama, still unbeaten in the tournament at 3-0-1 will now prepare for their rematch against the United States.


SEMIFINAL MATCHUP

The United States and Panama will face off for the 4th time in the last 3 Gold Cups and the 2nd time this year in the Semifinals. The U.S. eliminated Panama in the quarterfinals in both 2007 and 2009 by identical 2-1 scores. In 2007, the U.S. got goals from Landon Donovan and Carlos Bocanegra as they made an early 2-0 lead stand up. Then in 2009 they erased a 1-0 lead when Kyle Beckerman equalized and then Kenny Cooper converted a penalty in the 105th minute to win it. Finally, just last week Panama dealt the U.S. their first ever loss in Gold Cup group play winning 2-1 on the strength of goals from Luis Tejada and Gabriel Gomez.