BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (AP)

The United States ended Spain's record winning streak with a 2-0 upset victory yesterday to book an unlikely but deserved place in the Confederations Cup final.

Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey exposed a sluggish Spanish defence and Tim Howard made several quality saves to stop Spain's record run at 15 wins and put the Americans into their first FIFA men's final at any level.

deflected pass

Altidore took a deflected pass from Dempsey in the 27th minute, turned Joan Capdevila and beat Iker Casillas with a shot that bounced off the goalkeeper's hand and into the net.

Spain was caught on the break when Landon Donovan crossed into the goalmouth where two defenders misplayed the ball before Dempsey slotted it home in the 74th.

"We knew we had to pick and choose our moments to go forward," Dempsey said. "We're happy with the result and we know we're going to have our work cut out to get anything out of the final."

lunging tackle

The Americans, who will face either Brazil or host South Africa in Sunday's final, survived despite playing the final minutes without Michael Bradley, who was sent off in the 87th for a lunging tackle.

Spain hadn't been beaten since a loss to Romania in November 2006.

Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque had warned his players not to be complacent, yet his team defence was tottering for much of the game.

"Losing is never good," Del Bosque said. "We're not used to losing."

The Americans knew all about it after losses to Brazil and Italy in their first two games. The team only squeezed into the semi-finals because they scored one more goal than a sagging Italy.

"I can't explain it any more than you can," Howard said. "Sports is funny sometimes, but when you put your mind to something, you can achieve it."

Against Spain's finest from Barcelona, Real Madrid and the Premier League, the United States had heart, grit and a big dose of luck. The Americans were outshot 29-9, but they still had enough for their biggest result since reaching the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup.

The attacks, though, just kept coming and it seemed a matter of time before the underdogs would finally crumble. The Americans never did.