The first set of matches in the CONCACAF Gold Cup come to a close on Tuesday evening when Group D plays their opening games which means that by the end of the night we will have seen all 16 teams in the competition in action.
Canada are the star draw in this section of the competition and they’ll be expected to dominate the group but it could be quite tight in behind them so we could be in for an intriguing night of football in this tournament.
Canada vs Guadeloupe (00.00 – Viaplay Sports 2)
The action begins in Toronto on Tuesday evening when Canada get their Gold Cup campaign underway when they play host to a Guadeloupe side who will be buoyed by their two convincing wins in the preliminary stage of this competition to make it this far.
Unlike some of the qualifiers in this event, Guadeloupe have had enough time to recover and take stock of what lies ahead and give this a real good go. They will probably know their best chances of victory in this group lie ahead of them but anything they can get from here will be a real bonus. Really though this match is all about Canada and how their patched up squad looks in their opening match. They have chosen to leave some talented players out of the reckoning for this tournament with Alphonso Davies, Jonathan David, Tajon Buchanan and Cyle Larin all left out from the squad which finished second in the Nations League just over a week ago. I still expect Canada to have too much here but I’ll see how their potentially disjointed squad looks before I get too involved in their matches.
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Guatemala vs Cuba (02.00 – Viaplay Sports 1)
The second part of the action on Tuesday evening sends us back to the home of Inter Miami in Florida for the clash between Guatemala and Cuba who are the final two sides to get their group stage campaign underway.
Guatemala go into the tournament having been on a good run over the last 12 months. They had a very encouraging Nations League spell winning four of their six matches to gain promotion to the top part of that competition and in the warm up for this event they beat Costa Rica and only narrowly went down to Venezuela so they look like an improving side and have recognisable players in the likes of Rubio Rubin from Real Salt Lake and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing who has been a regular for a number of teams in the EFL. Aaron Herrera is a regular in MLS for CF Montreal too. To be fair, Cuba also had a good Nations League campaign winning five of their six matches and getting promoted to Group A. They embarked on the challenges of Chile and Uruguay in the lead up to this tournament and were competitive without landing a blow. Cuba will expect to offer a lot more than they did the last time they reached the Gold Cup when they took 7-0 poundings at the hands of Mexico and Canada and lost 3-0 to Martinique. They have improved since then but lack that standout player with Onel Hernandez not selected in the squad for this. I’d expect Cuba to be better than in recent Gold Cup appearances but with stars in attacking areas I fancy Guatemala will have too much for them.
Tips
Back Guatemala (-1AH) to beat Cuba for a 3/10 stake at 1.90 with Bet365
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