Gold Cup Quarterfinals

HONDURAS 1 COSTA RICA 1 - Honduras wins 4-2 on penalty kicks

Just an absolutely devastating loss for the Costa Ricans. After falling behind 1-0 minutes after halftime on Jerry Bengtson's third goal of the tournament, they fought back and equalized when Dennis Marshall knocked home a corner kick in the 55th minute. Twenty minutes later though they failed to convert a golden opportunity and in the end it cost them the match. Marcos Urena was fouled by Víctor Bernárdez in box setting up a penalty kick for Real Salt Lake's Alvaro Saborio, but Saborio was denied by Honduras' team captain Noel Valladares. The two sides went scoreless the rest of regulation and full 30 minutes of extra time setting up penalty kicks to decide the winner. Honduras connected on all four of their penalties with Carlo Costly, Bernárdez, Wilson Palacios and Bengston all converting, but Costa Rica saw a pair of attempts hit the crossbar, one by Celso Borges and another by Saborio giving him two misses from the spot. Bryan Ruiz and Joel Campbell both made their kicks, but it wasn't enough as Costa Rica has never beaten Honduras in Gold Cup play. Honduras will now face tournament favorite Mexico in the semifinals.

MEXICO 2 GUATEMALA 1

The Guatemalans put up a great fight nearly pulling off the upset against what had seemed to be a previously invincible Mexican side, but El Tri overcame an early deficit and stole the 2-1 win. Carlos Ruiz, Guatemala's all-time leading scorer, added to his career tally with his 44th career goal not even 5 minutes into the match. Guatemala rode that lead into the intermission, but just minutes into the second half Aldo de Nigris scored his third goal of the tournament to even the score at 1. The 27 year old Monterrey forward now has 5 goals for Mexico, all of them scored this year. Then in the 65th minute, a familiar face put Mexico ahead for good. For the 6th time in the Gold Cup, Chicharito found the back of the net. The defending champs more or less dominated the run of play the rest of the way and now head to the semifinals for the third straight time where they will take on Honduras.

SEMIFINALS

Mexico and Honduras have met 5 times since 2007 with Honduras winning 3 of them including a 2-1 victory in the 2007 Gold Cup behind a pair of goals from Carlo Costly. The teams split four matches in World Cup Qualifying, with Mexico winning their last meeting in September of 2009 1-0 on a penalty kick from Cuauhtémoc Blanco.