Argentina (1) 2

Rebecchi 9, Luchetti 39

USA (1) 2

Lingo 29, 64

Argentina won 7-6 on penalties

Argentina were finally named as the winners of the Women's Pan Am Cup, more than six hours after they beat USA 7-6 on penalties.

Confusion and uncertainty surrounded the outcome for much of last night after the US dramatically appealed against their defeat.

Argentina thought they had won the trophy for the third time when Rachel Dawson missed her side's eighth penalty of the night.

However the US immediately appealed the result, follwing a controversial penalty from Argentina's Noel Barrionuevo.

The Americans and Argentina finished 2-2 at the end of regulation time and extra time, forcing the shootout.

Both teams converted four of five strokes in the first round, then Dawson was the first to miss in the sudden death second round.

But the US appealed over Argentina's first successful penalty in the second round.

Noel Barrionuevo stepped away from her stroke after Scottish umpire Jean Duncan blew her whistle for the penalty to be taken. Under the laws of the game, there can be no delay after the whistle.

The US said that penalty should be considered a miss, and America would then have won because Caroline Nichols, who was next up, made the goal.

But two other rules were also clouding the case for the appeals committee.

First, the whistle can be blown only when the player was in position, and Duncan was believed to have awarded the score because Barrionuevo was not ready. Second, a team cannot appeal an umpire's decision.

An appeals jury was convened, and after hours of discussion finally came to a decison at 12.45 this morning.

Argentina's Lionesses have never lost a regional competition, and the US needed to break their monopoly to qualify for next year's Women's World Cup, for which Argentina had already qualified as the host.

Defeat was particularly hard on US captain Carrie Lingo, who twice pulled her side level in regulation time.

Carla Rebecchi gave Argentina a ninth-minute lead when she reacted quickest in the circle to power the ball past goalkeeper Amy Tran.

Lingo then equalised in the seventeenth minute, turning in a powerful penalty corner from Dawson.

Argentina went back in front four minutes into the second half in controversial circumstances when skipper Rosario Luchetti's looping shot was adjudged to have crossed the line.

Umpire Frances Block of England originally ruled Tran had kept the ball out, but after Argentina protests she consulted with second umpire Duncan and reversed her decision.

Lingo dragged her side level six minutes from full-time, scoring in similar fashion to her first, and America came closest to winning in extra time when Tiffany Snow fired inches wide from a Kayla Bashore cross.

In the shootout, America's Dina Rizzo and Luchetti missed in the first set of penalties, forcing a sudden death second round.

It was the unfortunate Dawson who finally decided the final; having comfortably put away her first penalty, she slid her second agonisingly wide of the left post.

Argentina: L Aladro (GK), D Merino (sin-binned: 57-62), R Luchetti, R Sanchez, S Parral, C Rebecchi, M Abente, V Villalba, D Sruoga, I Arrondo, G Aguirre, S D'elia, G Kanevsky N Barrionuevo (sin-binned: 85-90).

USA: A Tran (GK), J Gey, R Dawson, S Dawson, T Snow, S Silvetti, K Smith, C Lingo, C Nichols, C Laubach, D Rizzo, K Bashore, L Crandall, L Powley, K Reiprecht.

Umpires: J Duncan (Scotland), F Block (England)