The third international tournament to be played this summer is the CONCACAF Golf Cup and it gets underway in America on Saturday evening as the biannual battle for the title, which is often between USA and Mexico, starts off.
Those two sides competed in the final two years ago, with Mexico coming out on top. They will defend the title with 14 other sides apart from USA looking to break the status quo over the next month or so.
Recent Winners
2019 – Mexico
2017 – USA
2015 – Mexico
2013 – USA
2011 – Mexico
2009 – Mexico
2007 – United States
2005 – United States
2003 – Mexico
2002 – USA
The Format
The tournament was expanded from 12 teams to 16 for th3 2019 renewal of the event and that format has been retained for this year. The one difference is that there is an invited team in the tournament in the form of Qatar. The 16 nations have all been placed into four groups of four where everyone plays each other once in the first phase. Unlike some tournaments around the world this one is quite simple. The top two go through to the knockout stages and everyone else goes home.
The knockout part of the tournament will see extra time and penalties being played if the match finishes a draw after 90 minutes. The draw has already been determined for the knockout stages and also unlike some tournaments no team from the same group can meet again before the final. The champions will be crowned in the final in Las Vegas on August 1.
Group A
The defending champions Mexico are the headline act in Group A. They are the favourites to win the tournament but they will be without their usual talisman in Raul Jimenez which might make them a little more vulnerable. They are in a section with El Salvador who will be expected to follow Mexico into the knockout stage. Curacao are coached by Patrick Kluivert and will want to be dark horses in this tournament. The group is completed by Trinidad and Tobago who came through an epic penalty shootout to qualify for this tournament.
Group B
The hosts USA are the star attraction in Group B of the competition. They have an exciting young squad who will be looking to follow up their Nations League success. They will be expected to win this group while it is Canada who will be expected to follow them through in second place. Martinique are the other side who qualified by right in this group. They have only been past the group stage once in six attempts. Haiti came through the qualifying event to be the last team in this group.
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Group C
The top seeds in Group C is a Costa Rica side who have underachieved in this part of the world for a while now. You get the feeling that they could be sitting ducks to a pretty strong looking Jamaica squad although those two will be expected to come through this section with plenty in hand. Suriname are the third seeds in the group but they are the weakest of the teams in that collection while Guadeloupe have done well to qualify for the first time since 2011 but look to be up against it in this company.
Group D
The last of the groups might be the most open of the lot with Honduras the top seeds in it. They never made it out of the first stage two years ago and that is the very least they will expect to do this time around. The second seeded side in this section are Panama who made a name for themselves when they qualified for the World Cup in 2018 but haven’t performed to that level since then. Grenada have also qualified for the tournament and have been placed in this group while the invited team Qatar could be the spoilers to the party.
Betting
I’m not going to go too mad on the outright market for this tournament. Only a couple of bookies have priced it up at the time of writing and there are two massively strong runners who are likely to make it through to the final and battle it out for the title. This is sport though and France were expected to dominate at Euro 2020 and came unstuck so I will have a small bet to keep my interest a little stronger from the outset.
I’ll have a little dabble on Honduras who finished third in the Nations League and only went down to a last minute goal by USA in the semi-final of that competition. Since then they have held a strong enough Mexico side to a goalless draw in a friendly so there are signs that this Honduran side are improving. Although they never scored in those matches they do have a vibrant attack and if they win the group they will dodge Mexico until the final. At 25/1 I think there might be enough juice in this price to merit a small bet.
Tips
Back Honduras to win CONCACAF Gold Cup (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 26.00 with Bet365
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