Panama defeated the United States 5-4 in a shootout in the Gold Cup semifinals at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego on Wednesday night.
Jesús Ferreira disallowed Iván Anderson’s goal in overtime for Panama to send the game to penalties with the game tied 1-1 and Thomas Christiansen’s team winning from the penalty spot to tip interim USA coach BJ Callaghan his first loss since taking over the duties of the national team.
“There are many learning lessons that we are all going to learn as we continue our preparation for the road to 2026,” Callaghan said, looking towards the Americans co-hosting the World Cup.
“There were some older senior guys who had experience that we challenged to take on more leadership roles, mentoring roles, and that came out. And then we had a group of young players, either U20, who had played in the U20 — or Olympic age, and all striving to make that list in 2026.”
The USA started strong and hit the post through Cade Cowell in the opening minutes, but it was Panama who looked better as the half wore on with the visitors having a fancy goal disallowed for offside as the game went away. at halftime tied 0-0.
The USA had just 34% possession in the first half.
“The first half is my fault,” Callaghan said of the US with just 34% possession through the first 45 minutes. “I didn’t put the team together the way they should have.”
The balance of play stabilized in the second half and Brandon Vázquez fired over the crossbar from Cowell’s cutback in the 52nd minute just before Ismael DÃaz saw his header from close range deflected past Matt Turner.
In extra time, Anderson put Panama in front with a smart move to beat Turner near the top of the box before finishing to empty nets, but Ferreira added to his Gold Cup-leading goal tally with a well-placed volley from Jordan Morris head. back through the box to tie the game at one each.
Orlando Mosquera saved a penalty from USMNT’s Cristian Roldan before Adalberto Carrasquilla beat Turner from the penalty spot in a sudden death shootout to send Panama to its third Gold Cup final in the country’s history.
Panama will face Mexico after El Tri beat Jamaica at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
It looked similar to the USA’s game against Canada in Sunday’s quarterfinals, when the Canadians won 2-1 after extra time before the Americans tied and won a penalty shootout with two saves by Turner.
This was the first time the USMNT had gone into overtime in back-to-back games, and they had never played overtime twice in the same tournament.
The USA dodged a potential penalty in the fourth minute of stoppage time when video review determined that Djordje Mihailovic did not commit a handball.
