Panama Beats Colombia to Reach Final

Panama completed an improbable double over Colombia on Thursday night, surprising the favored South Americans, 3-2, to reach the final of soccer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup for the first time.

The Canaleros, who also had beaten Colombia, 1-0, in the first round of the 12-nation tournament, will play the U.S. at noon PDT Sunday in the championship game.

“I don’t really care who we play,” U.S. Coach Bruce Arena said before the match. “[But] we obviously know Panama a lot better than we know Colombia.”

The Giants Stadium crowd of 41,721 was divided primarily between fans of Colombia and Honduras, which lost, 2-1, to the United States in the first game of the semifinal doubleheader, but it was the small Panamanian contingent that was celebrating at the end.

Ricardo Phillips put Panama on the scoreboard in the 12th minute, sending a glancing header off a cross by Julio Medina spinning past Colombia goalkeeper and captain Farid Mondragon.

At 25:55, veteran Jorge Dely Valdes doubled the Central Americans’ advantage after an excellent attacking move, scoring off a pass from Luis Moreno.

Colombia cut the advantage to 2-1 on a goal by Jairo Patino in the 63rd minute, but Phillips restored Panama’s two-goal edge 10 minutes later. A second goal by Patino in the 89th minute came too late.

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-- Grahame L. Jones