The second set of quarter finals in the CONCACAF Gold Cup take place in Minnesota on Sunday night as four sides battle it out to see which two teams will compete in the semi-finals of the competition later in the week.
We saw Honduras and Mexico book their spot in the first semi-final on Saturday night and on Sunday it will be the turn of the likes of Canada and USA to see whether they can join them. Guatemala and Costa Rica will be looking to produce upsets.
Canada vs Guatemala (21.00 – Premier Sports 2)
The third quarter final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup sees Canada looking to make it into the semi-finals of the competition when they go up against the surprise package of the tournament so far in Guatemala, for whom anything from here is a massive bonus.
Guatemala were expected to miss out on qualification to Jamaica in the group phase but once they had dealt with the Reggae Boyz it was a case of clinging on and making it through and they did that successfully. They are likely to meet their match here though. Had it not been for an equaliser four minutes into injury time by Curacao in their second game, Canada would have won all three matches in the group and anything but a Canuck win here would be a massive surprise. The question is how best to play that and I think the way to do it will be to back Canada to win to nil at evens. They beat Honduras and El Salvador to nil in the group stage and when Guatemala came up against someone on their game they lost 1-0 to Panama so there is plenty of evidence to suggest that will be the outcome here. In terms of stats, Canada have only given up six shots on target in their three matches while Guatemala have only created 10 shots on target in the tournament so far. With Canada dominating the ball and being solid at the back, them winning to nil makes a lot of sense.
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USA vs Costa Rica (00.00 – Premier Sports 2)
The last of the quarter finals sees the tournament co-hosts USA looking to make it into the last four of their own party when they go up against a Costa Rica side who are aiming to show they can still be big players on the North American stage.
These two sides have met in plenty of key matches down the years but there are questions over both of them at the minute. This isn’t a great USA side at the best of times let alone when they leave out the majority of their European contingent for the tournament and while they won all three matches in the group, I would still like to see more from them. We might find out much more about USA in this match. They were warm favourites in all three group games. They are fairly warm favourites here but Costa Rica are more than capable of holding their own and Mexico were unable to break them down in their last group game. I’m on Costa Rica outright in this tournament so I don’t need to get involved in the match again but I would have sided with the outsiders had it not been for the fact that attacker Manfred Ugalde is suspended. I still wouldn’t be surprised if you get a return on the +1 Asian but I can cheer Costa Rica without getting involved again so it is just the early game bet for me.
Tips
Back Canada to win to nil for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
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