HOUSTON — After tying 1-1 in regulation and through 30 minutes of overtime, Panama beat South Africa 5-3 on penalty kicks in the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals at Reliant Stadium on Sunday.
Panama advanced to Thursday's semifinals at East Rutherford, N.J., against Colombia, which upset Mexico 2-1 earlier Sunday. In the other semifinal, the United States plays Honduras.
In the shootout, Panama's Luis Tejada, Angel Luis Rodriguez, Felipe Baloy, Alberto Blanco and Gabriel Gomez scored, while goalkeeper Jaime Penedo blocked the kick of South Africa's Ricardo Katza to set up the victory.
After a scoreless first half, Jorge Luis Dely Valdes took a pass from Tejada and scored from close range to put Panama ahead in the 48th minute.
In the 68th, South Africa's Lungisani Ndlela ran over Penedo en route to scoring a close-in goal.
The 60,050 who attended the two games on Sunday represented the second-largest soccer crowd in Houston history, trailing only a 70,000 sellout for a United States-Mexico game in May 2003.