EFE

Colombia and Panama second round

Panama, Colombia, USA and Honduras played their previous matches in Miami, Houston, Seattle, and Boston but now landed in New York for the doubleheader at Giants Stadium.

Panama will face Colombia for the second time in this Gold Cup. In the opening match of the tournament, the Central Americans surprised Colombia 1-0 in Miami with a Luis Tejada goal. Both teams are coached by Colombians; Jose Hernandez has taken Panama to a historic run to the semis of Gold Cup, and Reinaldo Rueda team eliminated Mexico 2-1 in Houston.

Felipe Baloy, central defender for Panama, noted, everybody in Panama is happy with what we done and they will come support us tomorrow. We hoped to have a great tournament, and by getting to the semis we have done it. We are just waiting for Thursday match.

Colombia hopes to equal its best showing in Gold Cup, when in 2000 they lost to Canada in the final. In the midst of World Cup qualifying, Colombia has confirmed new talents such as Oscar Passo, Julian Anchico and Abel Aguilar (who scored the winning goal against Mexico), and gotten good performances from resurgent veterans like Jairo Patino and Faryd Mondragon.

Panama players have the most minutes and fatigue, so they have rested since beating South Africa in Houston. Goalie Jaime Penedo and goal scorer Luis Tejada have shined for the Red Tide. Panama played 120 minutes against South Africa before winning in a penalty-kick tiebreaker,, when Gabriel Gómez scored the decisive goal with a cheeky chip from the spot which unleashed the celebrations at Reliant Stadium and in Panama.

On Wednesday, Panama surveyed the Giants Stadium field. They will be able to count on the return of their creative midfielder Julio Medina.

When Honduras stepped onto the pitch of Giants Stadium they were surprised by the visit of former Honduran international Amado Guevara, who joked with his countrymen and gave out gift jerseys. Guevara now plays for the New York MetroStars.

After the elimination of Mexico, the US is now the favorite to win the Gold Cup. The offensive tandem of Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley is beginning to click for Bruce Arenaâ¿¿s team, which will lose Conor Casey and Steve Cherundolo with injuries. However, on Wednesday the Americans received their highest spot ever sixth place in the FIFA rankings. Furthermore, the United States has gone 28 matches without losing at home to a team from the Concacaf region (the last loss was 3-2 against Honduras in Sept. 2001).