EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey, 23 July 2005 — The United States struck twice in the dying minutes to edge Honduras 2-1 in a CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal on Thursday, snatching an unlikely victory in a match that the visitors had dominated.

In tomorrow’s final of the biennial competition for North and Central America and the Caribbean countries, the US will face Panama, who upset Colombia 3-2 in the second match of a doubleheader at Giants Stadium.

The hosts sealed a barely-deserved victory in the first minute of injury time, when defender Oguchi Onyewu rose above the Honduran defense to head home a floated Landon Donovan free kick.

The strike was the Standard Liege player’s first for his country and completed a dramatic turnaround for the hosts, who had their coach Bruce Arena dismissed earlier in the second half for swearing at the fourth official.

The red card means Arena will be suspended from the dugout for tomorrow’s final.

Onyewu’s winner capped a late rally by the home side, who had equalised five minutes earlier when John O’Brien was the beneficiary of a botched Erick Vallecilo clearance that rebounded off the midfielder and past Junior Morales in the Honduras goal.

Until then, it had not been a good night for the US, who lost central defender Eddie Pope after 15 minutes with a sprained left ankle following a crunching tackle by Asthou Henriquez.

The Americans did not play like a team which has just climbed to a highest-ever sixth position in the official FIFA world rankings.

The three-man defense looked cumbersome against 39th-ranked Honduras and particularly vulnerable to long passes into the corners that exposed their lack of pace.

From one such defense-splitting pass early in the 22nd minute, Wilmer Velasquez was flagged marginally offside before his cross was touched in by Milton Nunez.

The Hondurans were not to be denied, however, and eight minutes later, Nunez stole the ball from Frankie Hejduk and threaded a pass through to Mario Ivan Guerrero, who rifled a low shot past Kasey Keller from 10 yards. With Honduran supporters making up roughly 90 percent of the crowd of around 40,000, the goal sparked wild celebrations in the stands and the party seemed set to continue until O’Brien’s late intervention put the home side back on track.

“It was a great win for the players,” Arena said, while refusing to discuss his dismissal.

“We played exceptionally well in the second half and to give Honduras credit, they capitalised on a mistake and scored a goal.”

Panama raced into a 2-0 halftime lead with goals from Ricardo Phillips and Jorge Luis Dely Valdes as Colombia were reduced to 10 men when Humberto Mendoza was dismissed for elbowing in the 39th minute.

Panama’s Luis Moreno was sent off early in the second half and Jairo Pantino hauled Colombia back into the contest with half an hour to go.

The Colombians pressed for an equaliser but were caught on the break, Phillips adding his second to make the game safe for Panama.

Pantino added his and Colombia’s second with two minutes remaining and despite a frantic final few minutes, Panama held on to secure a memorable victory.