The CONCACAF Gold Cup comes to a close on Sunday evening when the tournament hosts USA take on the defending champions Mexico in what should be a fiercely competitive clash in Las Vegas with the North American title on the line.
Both teams have had periods where they have looked strong in this competition and other times when they have looked weak and vulnerable so it will be interesting to see who can expose the issues of the other the best.
USA
The Americans continue to frustrate their fans I would imagine although should they win this final then you won’t hear anything said about that. They have come through the competition so far having won every match they have played but four of their five wins have been 1-0. Winning is never a bad thing and if you don’t concede you only need to find one goal to get the job done but Americans like their sport to come with more action to it than that.
They haven’t been helped necessarily by some of their players being unavailable due to the various travel restrictions that are in place around the world but even so you’d have expected more from them. They have been very good defensively which is the real positive going into this final but you sense they are going to need to threaten the opposition goal more here because that defence is going to be under serious pressure in this match.
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Mexico
It took Mexico a match to get going in this tournament but after they blew away the cobwebs in the 0-0 draw with Trinidad & Tobago we have seen much more of what we would have expected to see from them in the competition. I don’t think they have been brilliant or flourished like we know that they can but they haven’t been in any danger since that opening match and that is all you can ask for really. They will hope to peak in this final match of the event.
The strength in depth of Mexican football is clearly quite something these days because their under-23 team have made the semi-final of the Olympic Games so the players on show here know they need to deliver the goods in this final as there are players coming for their places if they don’t. We haven’t seen Mexico all that fluent in front of goal which is a bit of a surprise but what we have seen is them being defensively solid.
Betting
USA edged out Mexico in extra time when these two met in the Nations League final a couple of months ago but that was a full strength USA side which had the likes of Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and some of the other overseas based stars in their ranks. This squad doesn’t have that and as a result of that I expect Mexico to turn the tables on them. I don’t think this will be a classic encounter and I’m tempted by under 2.25 goals but I think Mexico on the Asian lines provides a safer option.
Obviously that gives us a 2-1 which the other bet doesn’t so I like that a little more. USA have come through quite solidly but they were a little fortunate in the early stages against Qatar in the semi-final and I don’t think they’ll get away with that twice. I’m not convinced this USA attack can hurt Mexico either so I think the cards are firmly in the hands of the Mexicans here. I think Mexico can successfully defend their title within the 90 minutes.
Tips
Back Mexico (-0.25AH) to beat USA for a 3/10 stake at 1.93 with Bet365
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