US tries to avenge Panama loss in Gold Cup semis

The US team will face Panama and Mexico will meet Honduras in Wednesday's semi-finals of the biennial North American regional football tournament, with the winners advancing to Saturday's championship match at Pasadena, California.

"As we've gone on, we have progressed as a team and we're on this momentum," US playmaker Landon Donovan said. "We're getting better. I think we're going to peak at the right time."

Luis Tejada scored in the 19th minute and Gabriel Gomez added a penalty kick in the 36th to put Panama on top in their earlier match. Clarence Goodson answered for the Gold Cup hosts in the 68th minute but it was not enough to deny Panama a first victory over the US team after six losses and two draws.

"Give Panama a lot of credit. They started the game well, took the initiative to be aggressive and made some early plays," Donovan said.

"Some nights you come out flat and you don?t get punished and other nights you do. We learned a valuable lesson."

It was the first group-round Gold Cup loss in American history after 24 wins and two draws and sent a message about the improvement in US rivals from Central America and the Caribbean.

"CONCACAF teams are getting better and better. That?s a pretty good team," Donovan said.

The Mexicans, who did not face Honduras in the group stage, received a boost Sunday when they were told by CONCACAF that they can replace the five players withdrawn from the team after testing positive for banned substances in training camp doping tests last month.

Goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, who plays for the Mexican side America, defenders Francisco Javier Rodriguez of Dutch side PSV and Edgar Duenas of Mexico's Toluca and midfielders Antonio Naelson of Toluca and Christian Bermudez of Atlante were pulled from the squad by the Mexican federation.

The Mexicans had asked organizers to replace the players because national federation officials believe they inadvertently ingested banned clenbuterol in tainted meat.

"Based on the specific facts of this case, and on FIFA's advice on the matter, the situation at hand is a case of force majeure as contemplated in the competition regulations," CONCACAF's statement said.

"Therefore the Mexican National Team shall be permitted to replace the five separated players with up to five other players for the remainder of the competition."

In the tournament's 20-year history, Mexico has taken five titles with the host United States winning three times, Canada capturing the crown in 2000 and Honduras winning the inaugural crown over the US team on penalty kicks in 1991.

Mexico routed the Americans 5-0 in the 2009 final, spoiling the US bid for a third consecutive Gold Cup title.

The Gold Cup champions earn a berth in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup.