PANAMA CITY, Panama - For the second straight road game,

the United States got a late goal from a second-half substitute to

gain a tie in World Cup qualifying.

Cobi Jones scored two minutes into second-half injury time

Wednesday night, and the United States escaped with a 1-1 tie

against Panama.

''I give the U.S. credit for passing character test,'' American

coach Bruce Arena said. ''At the end of the day, it is not

certainly a perfect performance, but we are on the road and we take

two points away from the home team.''

Roberto Brown's goal in the 69th minute had put 106th-ranked

Panama on track for a huge upset against the 10th-ranked Americans.

After three minutes of injury time had been signaled, Eddie

Lewis lofted the ball and it bounced off a Panamanian player who

had challenged Brian McBride. On the soggy turf, Landon Donovan

turned and mishit the ball, which sliced to Jones.

Jones, who may have been in an offside position, then beat

goalkeeper Donaldo Gonzalez from 8 yards for his 15th goal in 163

international appearances.

''My main thing was trying to open up the attacking lane and

stay onside,'' Jones said. ''When it came to me, I knew the keeper

was trying to cheat for Landon's shot, so my thought was just to

try and slide it in on the far post.''

Donovan said the ball didn't come up.

''Right as I went to shoot, it hit a little puddle, stopped and

it kind of came off the end of my foot,'' he said.

In the semifinal opener on Aug. 18, Brian Ching scored in the

89th minute for a 1-1 tie at Jamaica.

The United States extended its unbeaten streak to 10 since a

February loss to the Netherlands in an exhibition game. In the only

previous meeting between the nations, the Americans won 2-1 in July

1993 at Dallas at the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the regional championship.

''Once again, it was horrible conditions,'' U.S. goalkeeper

Kasey Keller said. ''Bad lightning, the pitch (field) was halfway

under water. It's a shame, but we're not going to blame anything on

the field. We didn't play particularly well, particularly in the

second half, so you have to give everybody credit for not

quitting.''

The Americans (1-0-2) lead Group A with five points, one ahead

of Jamaica and Panama (both 1-1-1) and two in front of El Salvador

(1-2), which lost 3-0 at home to Jamaica.

The top two nations in each of three groups advance to next

year's regional finals, and the United States has three games

remaining _ Oct. 9 at El Salvador followed by home games against

Panama (Oct. 13 at Washington) and Jamaica (Nov. 17 at Columbus,

Ohio).

The United States, coming off a 2-0 win at home over El Salvador

last weekend, squandered several early chances. While the Americans

had a 4-3 advantage in shots in the first half, they were outshot

13-5 in the second.

''I still think the big part of the game was our inability to

take advantage of our control in the first half where we created

chances and had a lot of the play,'' Arena said. ''Their forwards

won the battle and made a difference in the second half.''

Brown scored after Ricardo Phillips' initial shot was saved by

Keller, who came out to make the stop. Phillips took the rebound

and his second shot went off a post and rebounded to Brown, who

tapped it in from in front of the goal. Fans responded by setting

off flares among the crowd of about 14,500 at Estadio Rommel

Fernandez.

''We played to win,'' Brown said. ''We were careless in the last

minute. I'm disappointed and saddened by the result.''