PHILADELPHIA -- Gregg Berhalter said he was happy to see the United States advance to the semifinals of the Gold Cup, despite his side struggling Sunday in its 1-0 quarterfinal victory over tournament upstart Curacao.

The U.S. scored the game's only goal in the 25th minute, when Weston McKennie nodded home Christian Pulisic's cross, then absorbed some pressure in the second half to advance to the semifinals against Jamaica, which defeated Panama 1-0 earlier in the day.

"We're happy with the result of this game," Berhalter said in his postgame news conference. "That should be said.

"I'm proud of the guys for their effort, and now we move on to Nashville. We know it's going to be a good game. Jamaica is a good team, a robust team. We know they have some good attacking pieces."

Berhalter was also full of praise for Curacao, which reached the knockout rounds of the Gold Cup for the first time.

"I think they played an excellent game; you see they have clear ideas in their buildup," he said. "Their goalie [Eloy Room] is excellent with his feet.

"To me it's a great story, a small country like that being able to come to the tournament and play the football that they play. It was great."

- U.S. Player Ratings: United States barely bailed out by Pulisic
- CONCACAF Gold Cup: All you need to know
- Full Gold Cup fixtures schedule

While Berhalter was pleased with the outcome, this was a labored victory for the Americans. But he made no apologies for the scoreline, especially given the nature of knockout-round games.

"I think you guys wanted us to go out there and beat them 5-0, but we knew it was going to be a difficult game," he said. "You look at all the quarterfinals in this tournament, and Copa America, they're all tough games. They know there's no tomorrow if they lose."

The U.S. did have some chances to add to its lead following McKennie's goal, but couldn't capitalize, including one chance from Pulisic in the 57th minute where he failed to hit the target. But for long stretches, the attack looked static against a stout Curaçao defense.

"We kept them hanging around, and they were very compact," Berhalter said. "For us, it's about moving them out of position. Their midfielders were man-to-man, against Weston [McKennie] and Christian [Pulisic], and our job was to move them out of position to now find Gyasi [Zardes] or one of our wingers in the pocket.

"Especially in first half, there were times when that came off and it was OK, and then there were others when there wasn't enough movement to execute that."

The U.S. also looked vulnerable defensively in transition, as Curacao was able to play through the home side's press. Curacao also looked dangerous from set pieces, with Darryl Lachman's 42nd-minute header sailing just over the bar.

"We were trying to press the goalie, who was very calm with his feet," Berhalter said. "He was able to switch fields, find the free players and able to cut it back against the pressing guy to find the free player. And we didn't commit enough numbers forward to the press.

"In particular when we're coming from one side now, releasing our weakside winger to join the press, we didn't do that well enough in the first half."

Given that the U.S. press wasn't working, Berhalter opted to play more conservatively in the second half, daring Curacao to break the Americans down with the U.S. trying to grab a second goal in transition.

"We weren't going to press the goalie," he said. "You saw in the first half that the goalie didn't want to play the ball forward. We were happy not to fall into the trap of trying to press them.

"It would cost us more energy than it was worth, so we dropped off and mostly didn't press goalkeeper."

Berhalter added that this approach was why forward Jozy Altidore didn't play a part in the game. The strategy ultimately worked, though goalkeeper Zack Steffen was forced to tip Leandro Bacuna's 84th-minute drive over the bar.

Now the U.S. will face Jamaica in the semifinals, a team, Berhalter said, that "has quality." Having lost to the Reggae Boyz 1-0 in a friendly in early June, Berhalter said he's aware of what his side will need to do to prevail in Wednesday's meeting in Tennessee.

"I think it's about speed, speed of moments, having a mentality to turn their defenders, having a mentality to disorganize their defense and get behind their defense," he said.

"We could have been more aggressive with that tonight for sure, and that's something when I think about the last Jamaica game, it's a very similar type of performance where we had an early flurry, could have scored a goal, and then after that we lacked speed and the movements to get behind their back line."