The US Men's National Team saw their Gold Cup shutout streak snapped by a late Panama goal, but held on to score a 2-1 win and a place in Thursday's semifinal against Canada.

The hosts bossed much of Saturday's play just outside Boston, but were unable to get on the board until Donovan earned and deposited a penalty kick at the hour.

Carlos Bocanegra scored soon thereafter, rendering a late Blas Pérez strike as mere consolation.

The Americans carved out chances early and often in a card-filled opening period, with Donovan stopped by Panama keeper Jaime Penedo and Taylor Twellman firing over in the first 10 minutes.

Donovan was sent free on a breakaway by DaMarcus Beasley, but was again unable to beat the busy Penedo.

Twellman had another trio of chances, but a lunging shot wide, a firm header that sailed just over the bar and a Dempsey offside flag conspired to keep him off the scoresheet.

Panama were able to take the odd threatening posture, and in the 48th minute, Pérez rushed a shot straight into Howard from a perfectly curved Ricardo Phillips early ball.

Moments after Pérez had buzzed the bar with a sharp header, Donovan put the 'Nats ahead after Carlos Rivera was forced to haul him down from behind in the area.

Dempsey sent the #10 shirt running free, and the Galaxy star made no mistake with a wrong way spot kick.

Only two minutes later, a poorly marked Bocanegra nudged home Beasley's restart from the doorstep to double.

Panama were relegated to 10 men when Manuel Torres picked up his second booking in the 77th minute, but they would soon cut into the lead.

After Dempsey capitulated when in alone on Penedo and Hejduk rifled over from the right channel, Panama's danger man got loose.

Pérez eluded three colliding US defenders to shoot the underdogs back into the game with seven minutes on the clock, but the Red Tide were unable to equalize.

The USMNT will now head to Chicago to prepare for the match-up with Canada, who earned their trip to the final four with a 3-0 victory over Guatemala.

Scoring
USA - Landon Donovan (PK) 60'
USA - Carlos Bocanegra (DaMarcus Beasley) 62'
PAN - Blas Pérez 84'

Line-ups
USA - Tim Howard; Frankie Hejduk, Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, Jonathan Bornstein, Pablo Mastroeni, Michael Bradley, Landon Donovan (Ricardo Clark 89'), DaMarcus Beasley, Clint Dempsey (Brian Ching 84'), Taylor Twellman (Steve Ralston 71')

PAN - Jaime Penedo; Felipe Baloy, Amilcar Henríquez (Alberto Blanco 78'), Luis Moreno, Carlos Rivera, Víctor Herrera (Luis Henriquez 78'), Engin Mitre (Nicolas Munoz 66'), Juan Pérez, Ricardo Phillips, Manuel Torres, Blas Pérez