US advances to Gold Cup semis

[spoony]

"FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Landon Donovan and Carlos Bocanegra scored second-half goals, and the United States survived some sloppy defense late in the game to beat Panama 2-1 Saturday and advance to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

The defending champion Americans, who jumped from 29th to 16th in the latest FIFA rankings, play Canada on Thursday in Chicago for a berth in the final. Canada defeated Guatemala 3-0 in the opener of Saturday's doubleheader."

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=219015&cc=5901

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The match wasn't as close as the score says. The US hit the post maybe three times and didn't finish a few other clear scoring chances. It was good enough for today but they'll have to polish their game if they want to get through Canada.

(P.s. If you don't have any of the foreign and obscure channels they're airing this tourney on, like I don't, check out http://livefooty.doctor-serv.com/ to watch for free! All you need is MS Internet Explorer and a download of the (also free) sop-cast. Yeah, the announcers may be speaking Icelandic or Chinese, but they all use the same numbers so what the hey. :P )

[northzax]

1. yeah, they really need to finish

I thought Panama was going to embarrass them earlier on.

[RB TexLa]

2. Anyone watching Mex/CostaRico Just went final Mexico wins 1-0

[nickgutierrez]

3. How about Guadeloupe?

They get to play Mexico in the other semifinal. Huge accomplishment for them.

[northzax]

4. if they beat mexico...

I will be rooting for them against the US, I must say, especially since, as a they are a non-FIFA nation, the US would still get to go to Confederations...

[northzax]

5. ugly, ugly playing

by the nats in the second half last night. Nice to konw we can build a lead, but we simply can't keep pissing it away, Mexico will take advantage of such things!

[spoony]

6. I wasn't able to watch but someone told me that

they put an extra forward in late in the game with a two goal lead, what the hell kind of decision is that?!

[northzax]

7. yeah, Twellman came in for Dempsey in the 88th

but hey, it's not like tyler is really a striker, right? Bob did sub Feilhaber for EJ though in the 88th.