The Copa America Centenario continues on Sunday night into Monday morning as the opening matches in Group C are played out. Mexico and Uruguay is the second game of the double header but before that Jamaica and Venezuela meet in Chicago in a match where both know the losers will pretty much be guaranteed to leave the tournament at the earliest opportunity.
Jamaica
The Reggae Boyz qualified for this tournament by virtue of making the Gold Cup final. That was a significant improvement on their run in the Copa America last year where they played three matches in Chile and lost them all 1-0. Admittedly they played three tough opponents in Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina.
Jamaica warmed up for this tournament with a very impressive 2-1 win against Chile last weekend and with players to come into the side they should be confident. If they need any more belief of what an underdog can do they only need to take inspiration from Wes Morgan. The big Leicester defender is in the squad and knows all about underdogs winning.
Venezuela
Venezuela finished fourth in this tournament in 2011 but failed to make it out of their group last year even though they won their opening match so they have plenty to build on heading into this tournament. In all competitions Venezuela have just one win in 15 matches and that is not a favourable record at all.
If ‘La Vinotinto’ are to offer anything of note in this competition you would think the West Brom forward Salomon Rondon will have to be at his prolific best because if he doesn’t score goals the side could struggle. The second highest scorer in the squad at this level is a centre back which is never ideal.
Team news
Wes Morgan missed the friendly win over Chile last week. I’m guessing that was due to a heavy season and some pretty strong celebrations but I would expect him to come back into the side and strengthen Jamaica as a result.
Rondon will be the focal point for Venezuela but it will be interesting to see if they give him a strike partner. If they do then the Torino forward Josef Martinez is the man likely to get the nod with NEC forward Christian Santos waiting to come on from the bench.
Head to head
These two have met six times in the past with Jamaica winning twice and Venezuela winning three times with the other match a draw. There are some dated fixtures on there but one which could be relevant is their friendly last year when Jamaica turned Venezuela over 2-1.
Betting
Venezuela are really shortening so far and I guess that is because of the dominance of the South American sides against their Northern counterparts in the tournament to date but this is the worst of the sides from the south both on paper and in terms of form so I’m not so sure that dominance is going to be shown here.
Jamaica’s World Cup qualifying campaign isn’t going as smoothly as they like but they showed they have ability in the Gold Cup last year and their win over Chile last week came at the right time not just to give them belief but maybe to make Venezuela fear them a little.
I’m not expecting an open game here. That’s not how Jamaica play but I do fancy the Jamaicans to sneak this one. Venezuela can’t be confident at all here and Jamaica’s strength probably lies in their defence but in Giles Barnes they have the trickery and Claydon Donaldson the movement and power to open a defence up and that could be the difference here.
Tips
Back Jamaica (+0.5AH) to beat Venezuela for a 4/10 stake at 1.95 with Bet365
Back them here:
