The last two teams to get their Copa America campaign underway do so in the later game on Monday night when the ever popular Brazil begin their quest to get their hands back on the trophy when they take on Costa Rica in Los Angeles.
Brazil will be expected to dominate this group and push on and go close to winning the tournament while Costa Rica are aiming for a positive showing and hope that they can use it in their quest to be in better shape in two years when the World Cup is in this part of the world.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Premier Sports 1 channel in the UK with the coverage getting underway at 1.50am ahead of the 2am kick off. Bookmaker live streams are also showing the match.
Brazil
There is always plenty of attention on Brazil whenever they set out on their journey in a tournament but they might be under even more scrutiny than usual here because their form heading into the event has not been what we would expect of a country of this footballing stature and while you can underperform in World Cup qualifying where six teams are going to qualify automatically out of the 10 involved, you can’t play badly and prevail too deep in this tournament.
Brazil go into the match having lost their last three World Cup qualifying games which was preceded with a draw against Venezuela and in the lead up to this event they couldn’t get the better of USA who had just been ruthlessly battered by Colombia. The lack of a focal number nine in their attack has been an issue in that campaign while they have to consider that Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo arrive in America off the back of extended and tough seasons with Real Madrid.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account and bet £10 to get up to £20 in free bets! Perfect offer for the Copa America! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Costa Rica
Costa Rica might have a bit of an advantage heading into this match in that they have played in three competitive matches in 2024, two of which were earlier this month. They beat Honduras in the play-off to get to this tournament and while Saint Kitts and Nevis and Grenada aren’t the toughest of challenges, they beat both convincingly in World Cup qualifying. That means this squad has been together for a while and the least we can expect of them is to be up to speed.
What we will see from Costa Rica is a different thing entirely. They are probably obliged to take the game to teams who they played earlier in the month, although even if they don’t they would still come out on top, but against the bigger and better sides we generally see them looking to contain and hoping that they can catch something on the counterattack or with a set play and it would be a surprise if that isn’t the approach we see them adopting here.
Betting
It might get a little hairy at times but I can’t help but think that the right bet is for us to play Costa Rica with the 2.75 goal on the Asian handicaps. That means for us to lose in full Brazil would have to win by four clear goals and I just don’t see the North American side surrendering like that. We’ve all seen Costa Rica. They’ll foul, slow the game down, park whatever buses they have and generally do all they can to avoid any flow in the game.
Brazil might well need the game to come together as a cohesive unit but even then the conditions in Los Angeles are such that they might not want to be balls out in their opening game when they hope this is the first of six matches in less than three weeks. Even were Brazil to get a couple of goals ahead they might take their foot off the gas and we would get half our stake back should they win by three goals, and win in full with a two goal victory or less. Costa Rica have been competitively active so they’ll be up to speed here whereas Brazil are not really convincing at the minute and might just want to win the game rather than run up the score.
Tips
Back Costa Rica (+2.75AH) to beat Brazil for a 3/10 stake at 1.86 with Bet365
