Costa Rica’s and Panama’s male national soccer teams faced off today in quarter finals of the Gold Cup 2017 at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, USA.

The first half of the game came and went with not much action worth mentioning, both teams played a rough and inefficient 45 minutes.

Costa Rica generated very few scoring options and any attempts were easily controlled by Panama, the opposite was also true.

The Gold Cup tournament has received a lot of criticism because of the bad level that most of the teams have shown.

“La Sele” has lost 7 main figures due to injuries; luckily the Gold Cup’s format allows some replacements, but this has played a part in the poor performance of the team and creates concerns as the elimination games to classify to the Russia World Cup approach.

The second half of the game saw a little more action, and forced interventions by both teams’ goalkeepers, Calderon (Panama) and Pemberton (Costa Rica).

At minute 76’ it was Panamanian Anibal Godoy who scored an own goal that put Costa Rica ahead 1-0 and gave the Ticos the pass to the semifinal.

Panama’s participation in the Gold Cup came to an end today.

Costa Rica will play again next Saturday against the winner of the match between USMNT and El Salvador which will take place at 9 p.m. EST today.

The last time Costa Rica reached the semifinals of a Gold Cup was 8 years ago.