USA and Canada played a heart-pounding match with many twists and turns, which eventually ended with a shootout victory for the Americans that sent them to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The match ended 2-2 after 120 minutes, with the game headed for a goalless draw in regular time, but Brandon Vazquez opened the scoring for Canada in the 88th minute. Then the Maple leaves were already seen as winners, but the referee pointed to the penalty spot and Steven Vitoria equalized in the 93rd minute.
In the two overtimes of 15 minutes, things turned 180 degrees. In the 109th minute, Jakob Schaffelburg scored for the complete comeback for the Americans, but in the 115th minute, Scott Kennedy scored a ridiculous own goal that sent the game to penalty kicks.
Matt Turner saves two penalties in the shootout as the USA reach the Gold Cup semis at the expense of Canada pic.twitter.com/VORCsloFKK
— B/R Football (@brfootball) July 10, 2023
In the shootout USA showed more will and although they missed the first shot through Brandon Vazquez, they converted their next three chances thanks to Cade Cowell, Gianluca Buzio and Jesus Ferreira. The Canadians scored through Callum Miller and Jason Russell-Rowe, but the misses of Steven Vitoria, Liam Fraser and Charles-Andreas Brim were costly in the end and USA won the penalty shootout 3:2. In the 1/2-finals of the tournament, the Americans will play Panama, and the match is on July 12.