Damion Downs scored within the sixth spherical of a shootout after three saves by Matt Freese, sending the U.S. to the semifinals of the Concacaf Gold Cup with a 3-2 shootout win over Costa Rica after a a 2-2 tie on Sunday evening.
The U.S. superior to a Wednesday matchup in St. Louis towards Guatemala, which upset Canada on penalty kicks within the opener of the quarterfinal doubleheader.
Mexico performs Honduras within the different semifinal on Wednesday in Santa Clara, California. The championship is in Houston on July 6.
The U.S. has reached the semifinals in 17 of 18 Gold Cups, together with 13 straight since a quarterfinal loss to Colombia on penalty kicks in 2000.
Diego Luna and Max Arfsten scored in regulation for the U.S., which confronted its highest-ranked opponent of the event in Costa Rica (54th) after breezing by the group stage with an 8-1 objective differential.
Alonso Martinez scored the tying objective for the Ticos within the 71st minute with a left-footed shot after Carlos Mora break up Luca de La Torre and Arsten to take a shot on Freese and seize the rebound to arrange Martinez.
Concacaf modified the principles for this version of the biennial championship for North America, Central America and the Caribbean, eliminating further time apart from the championship sport.
John Tolkin had the primary probability to win the shootout for the U.S. Keylor Navas knocked down his attempt within the fifth spherical. Freese then denied Andy Rojas with a diving hand, climbing to his ft whereas nodding his head and protruding his tongue towards his cheering teammates at midfield. That arrange the winner by the 20-year-old Downs.
Lacking the event for the U.S. are regulars Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah, Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, Gio Reyna, Antonee Robinson, Folarin Balogun and Sergiño Dest, resulting from quite a lot of causes from accidents to relaxation to Membership World Cup commitments.
The Ticos performed with out 4 key gamers. Ahead Manfred Ugalde, who had three objectives within the event, and midfielder Carlos Mora have been suspended for yellow-card accumulation. Defender Ariel Lassiter (damaged left hand) and ahead Warren Madrigal (damaged left leg) have been sidelined by accidents.
Three of Costa Rica’s six objectives through the group stage got here by penalty kick, and Francisco Calvo added one other one within the twelfth minute after a foul by Arsten. Calvo went low to zip the ball simply out of attain of a diving Freese.
Malik Tillman, who had three group stage objectives, put a Thirty seventh-minute penalty kick off a put up and Navas knocked away Arfsten’s try off the rebound.
Luna picked him up along with his first objective in worldwide competitors by rocketing a shot off the chest of defender Alexis Gamboa for the equalizer within the forty third minute.
Tillman made amends for his miss early within the second half by poking a move forward for Arfsten, who surged in from the left wing to ship the ball into the alternative nook for the lead.