Carlos Bocanegra's goal two minutes from the final whistle gave the United States a 1-1 tie with Poland Sunday before 39,529 fans at Chicago's Soldier Field in its last game before opening the semifinal round of World Cup qualifying.

The tie increases the U.S. undefeated streak to seven games. Its is 5-1-3 in 2004.

Bocanegra's goal came on a header off Landon Donovan's corner kick to tie the game after Poland took the lead in the 76th minute.

The U.S. had a big edge in play, but the young Polish team surprisingly took the lead after a poor clearance by Tim Howard led to a break down the left wing. Howard could only get a hand to Marcin Burkhardt's cross, and Piotr Wlodarczyk was pounced on the loose ball and put just enough power on it as it trickled inside the right post.

Polish keeper Artur Boruc denied Brian McBride from the penalty spot in the 11th minute.

Midfielders Eddie Gaven and Brian Mullan both earned their first full international caps, coming on as subs late in the game. At age 17, 260 days, Gaven became the fourth youngest player in U.S. men's national team history to earn a cap.

The United States begins the semifinal round of World Cup Qualifying on Aug. 18 in Jamaica.

QUOTABLE

''To get that goal late in the game shows we played very well. I don't think the Poles were much of a threat during the game and they did well on the goal, making something out of that. We had a lot of chances to get a win from Josh Wolff, Brian McBride and Landon Donovan, and you could be critical of that, but I feel good about the way we played. It was good to get Brian Mullan and Brian Ching and Eddie Gaven some playing time because those are positions we need help in, and it was good to see Pablo Mastroeni playing in a position where he hasn't played in a long time.ö

— U.S. coach Bruce Arena

''I thought it was going to squirt through his legs and IÆm just glad no one was there to kick it out. It was nice. I didnÆt have such a great clearance on their goal.''

— Carlos Bocanegra

GAME REPORT

July 11 in Chicago

USA 1 Poland 1. Goals: Bocanegra 88; Wlodarczyk 76.

USA — Howard, Cherundolo (Albright, 46), Pope, Bocanegra, Convey; Mastroeni (Mathis, 76), Zavagnin (Gaven, 82), Donovan, Beasley, McBride (Ching, 65), Wolff (Mullan, 72)

Poland — Boruc, Mowlik, Dudka (Stasiak, 73), Kaczorowski, Bieniuk (Lasocki, 64), Jarzebowski, Rachwal (Scherfchen, 79), Burkhardt, Mila (Golinski, 62), Wlodarczyk (Gevorgyan 89), Jelen.

Yellow cards: USA — Mastroeni 72; Poland — Boruc 11, Rachwal 35, Jarzebowski 84.

Referee: Silvio Petrescu (Canada).

Att.: 39,529.

STATS

Shots: USA 15, Poland 7.

Saves: USA 3, Poland 4.

Corner Kicks: USA 6, Poland 6.

Fouls: USA 21, Poland 24.

Offside: USA 8, Poland 2.