Americans qualify for semifinals

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 soccer’s 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 the day’s doubleheader.

Blas Perez scored in the 84th minute for Panama, which lost to the United States on penalty kicks in the 2005 final of the Gold Cup, the championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean. Perez’s goal was the first allowed by the U.S. team in this year’s tournament.

In today’s quarterfinals at Houston, Honduras plays Guadaloupe and Mexico meets Costa Rica.

Donovan scored in the 60th minute, converting a penalty kick for the second time in two games, and Carlos Bocanegra made it 2-0 in the 62nd with a header off DaMarcus Beasley’s free kick.

With 32 goals, Donovan moved within two of Eric Wynalda’s U.S. career record. It was the 10th Gold Cup goal for Donovan, who moved ahead of Wynalda into second place in the tournament’s history, two behind Mexico’s Luis Roberto Alves.

The United States, seeking its fourth Gold Cup title, improved to 8-0-1 since Bob Bradley took over as coach from Bruce Arena. The Gold Cup winner qualifies for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa.