SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - D.C. United became the first Major League Soccer team to advance out of the Preliminary Round of the CONCACAF Champions League, beating Luis Angel Firpo on penalty kicks after both teams played to a 2-2 draw on aggregate at Estadio Cuscatlan on Tuesday night.

D.C. United won the shootout 5-4 with Argentine Christian Gomez sending his team through to the group stage by putting the ball off the left post and in for the visitors.

Chris Pontius, Danny Szetela and Ben Olsen struck for D.C., while Dennis Alas, Jorge Sanchez and Victor Merino put the ball past D.C. goalkeeper Josh Wicks. When Manuel Salazar put Firpo's fourth attempt over the crossbar, D.C. United had its chance and Marc Burch struck his shot powerfully down the middle.

Christian Sanchez kept the Salvadorians alive, scoring to Wicks' right, but moments later Gomez ended the game for D.C., putting his shot in off the post to goalkeeper Juan Gomez's right to book the Americans' ticket to the group stage. D.C. joins Group B with Toluca of Mexico, Marathon of Honduras and either San Juan Jabloteh of Trinidad & Tobago or San Francisco FC of Panama.

Firpo took a 1-0 lead on a penalty kick after referee Oscar Moncada whistled Burch for a high right arm that deflected Alas' back post cross. Leandro Franco converted after Burch was shown a yellow card.

Franco stepped to the ball and appeared to completely stop before tapping it past Wicks, who argued the penalty's legitimacy. But the goal counted and Firpo had a 1-0 lead on 39 minutes.

Three minutes later, though, D.C. equalized - and scored the all-important away goal - as Christian Gomez fired a 25-meter free kick past Firpo goalkeeper Juan Gomez after Jose Campos was booked for hauling down Santino Quaranta.

That put the aggregate series level at 2-2 heading into the second half.

Firpo had a pair of attempts late in the second half, but both shots by Merino and Franco rippled the outside netting.

The game went into extra time, but with both teams cramping as fatigue set in, the scoring chances were few in the added half hour.

D.C. ended the match with 10 men after Brazilian midfielder Fred was sent off for retaliating at Firpo's Carlos Monteagudo after being dispossessed in midfield two minutes from full time.

But D.C., which struggled mightily in last year's competition, earned a chance at redemption by winning on penalties moments later.