The Copa America will end for one of the two teams involved in the opening match of Tuesday night when we turn our attention back to Group B for the clash between Ecuador and Jamaica which takes place in Las Vegas.
Both of these teams were beaten in their opening match of the tournament over the weekend so they have run out of wiggle room for losing again. The winners will be back in relative control of their own destiny though.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Premier Sports 1 channel with the coverage from Nevada beginning at 10.50pm ahead of the 11pm kick off.
Ecuador
Ecuador went into the tournament expected to deliver good things over the course of the campaign but those plans were cancelled after 20 or so minutes of their opening match when they were reduced to 10 men. These conditions are hard enough with 11 men let alone 10 for so long and they paid the price. The worst thing about it was their loss was against Venezuela who they would have hoped to beat and control their own destiny.
We actually saw Ecuador offer plenty in attacking areas in the first half, even with 10 men, and they took the lead in the process but as you would imagine they just ran out of legs in the second period. We can’t really judge them on the defensive side of things because fatigue was a real factor but we do know that generally they have a solid back line in the main although whether they will have to alter the structure to be a threat without Enner Valencia remains to be seen.
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Jamaica
Jamaica opened up their campaign against familiar foes in the form of Mexico in their first game and for large parts they were the equal of El Tri but couldn’t really do enough to get regular pressure on the Mexican defence. Even accounting for that, they nearly took the lead when they had the ball in the back of the net only for the linesman to flag and rule it out. They might think that was the hardest game in the group though and they flourish from here.
This Jamaica side looks a really good one on paper. There is plenty of Premier League quality in their ranks but it all tends to be in the same area of the pitch so they can’t really utilise it as much as they would want to. It means that they don’t score as many goals as they should do and with Andre Blake missing in goal you wonder if they are going to be vulnerable at the back the longer the competition goes on. We might find out the answer to that here.
Betting
I like Ecuador here. I liked them before the tournament started and I’m not going to judge them on that opening effort with them being down to 10 men for so long. If anything the fact that they have to win here makes me like the Ecuadorians even more. Losing the main goal threat isn’t exactly ideal but while they had enough energy against the Venezuelans they showed more than enough to suggest that they could score goals without him.
Jamaica also have to open up and have a go here and that might make a defence which I think is vulnerable a little more so and allow Ecuador to get at them a little easier. Ecuador have plenty of technical quality in the centre of the park and for me looked much better in the times that we can judge them on in the opening set of games. Ecuador are plenty short enough to bet in the win market but they are only being asked to cover a goal on the Asian lines and if they get in front early I can see them extending their lead and riding this home.
Tips
Back Ecuador (-1AH) to beat Jamaica for a 3/10 stake at 1.92 with William Hill
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