Photo: Etienne Laurent / EFE
The Selection of Panama gave the bump in the gold Cup after beating USA on penalties 5-4after drawing 1-1 in 120 minutes and thus sealing their classification to the grand final of the competition, where they wait for the winner between Mexico and Jamaica.
Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego witnessed the first Gold Cup semifinal between the United States and Panama. In the official time of the match, both teams did not hurt each other and it was not until extra time when Panama took the lead at minute 99 through Iván Anderson and Jesús Ferreira would tie with a great goal at 105.
In the penalties, luck played on the side of the Panamanian team that ended up sealing their ticket to the grand final of the Gold Cuprelying on the rulings of Ferreira and Roldán.
The first 90 minutes between Panama and the United States
In the first half of the game, the Panamanians began to dominate the game, so much so that at minute 42 they almost vaccinated the Americans after a bad start by Turnerbut that the defense ended up resolving. Earlier, at minute 28 and with the United States dominating, Panama showed that they were in a match and they disallowed a clearly misplaced goal.
Panama came out better in the second half, but the United States was not far behind, there was a tie at zero with a lot of tension since the goal could fall at any moment. For the canaleros, Díaz and Carrasquilla disturbed the goal without luck.
The United States National Team had several occasions and the protagonist was the FC Cincinnati footballer, Brandon Vázquez, who forgave on several occasions to the goal defended by the Monagas SC goalkeeper, Orlando Mosquera.
At 93 the game was already dying, the Panamanians had the goal that would give them the pass to the final annulled. With the VAR as the protagonist the sacred cry for Díaz and for Panama, which was savoring glory, was dispersed.
The sanctioned offside was preceded by an apparent handball that would have given those led by Thomas Christiansen a penalty.
Extra time and penalties between Panamanians and Americans
Panama started with everything in the first part of extra time and was going to have its fruits, the eleventh channel wanted to go up and it was at minute 99 when Iván Anderson took advantage of a horrible start by Matt Turner and placed the deserved advantage for the Panamanians.
But the United States was going to react quickly at minute 106 and through Jesús Ferreira, who with a spectacular volley, placed the equalizer on the scoreboard for the selected stars and stripes in California.
In the penalty shootout the tension continued but luck was on the side of the canaleroswhich ended up sealing their pass to the Gold Cup final after the failures of Ferreira and Roldán, and with Carrasquilla scoring the final and putting Panama in its third final in the history of this tournament.
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