The opening quarter final of the Copa America Centenario takes place in the early hours of Friday morning when the host nation USA take on Ecuador in what looks like having the potential to be a fantastic match.
USA made it into this quarter final when they surprisingly won Group A in the final evening of matches while Ecuador were runners up to Peru in Group B but out-qualified Brazil which will give them plenty of confidence.
After losing their opening match if you had said that the United States would have won their group not many would have believed you but their demolition of Costa Rica and edging out of Paraguay ensured they did exactly that.
It might benefit them in many ways that they have been playing knockout football in their last two matches. Not only have they been playing that but they have put in two really good performances but the expectation is starting to build as is the pressure so it will be interesting to see if they can continue to handle it.
At one stage in the group it looked like Ecuador were going out of the competition when they trailed Peru 2-0 in their second match but they came back to force a draw in that game and that combined with a draw against Brazil and a demolition of Haiti was enough to send Ecuador into the quarter final.
We know this side have goals in them but can they keep them out? That is the question Ecuador will need to answer in this match. One thing we can be sure of is they will be attacking because there is no extra time in these quarter finals and nobody wants the lottery of a penalty shootout.
Team News
USA will be without DeAndre Yedlin for this match after his sending off against Paraguay in the final group match. Indications are that Michael Orozco will be the man to replace him at right back. Graham Zusi is pushing for a starting spot.
Ecuador have made it this far without their top striker Felipe Caicedo but the support given to Enner Valencia has generally been good and with Jefferson Montero yet to really shine they have more to come. Expect Ecuador to be at full strength in terms of what they brought to the tournament.
Head to Head
There have been 13 past meetings between these two nations. USA have only won three of them although the last of those wins came three weeks ago in a friendly to warm up for this tournament.
Ecuador have had five wins in all with five draws but they have won just one of the last six matches so the tide is turning towards USA as far as the overall record is concerned.
Betting
USA won 1-0 when these two sides met three weeks ago but I’m not quite sure how much we can take from that match because warm up matches are always hard to call so rather than factor it too much into the equation I’m going to focus largely on the here and now.
I’ve a feeling this is a bad match up for USA. Jefferson Montero gave DeAndre Yedlin all sorts of problems in the recent meeting so you would think he will be all over Orazco in this match. That spells a problem for the US and Ecuador’s central midfield could keep Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones doing more defending than attacking so that isn’t good either.
I fancy this is going to be a bit of a clash in styles in terms of formation and we might get a little bit of a stalemate here but if there is an area to be exposed then it is USA down their right so I’m going to edge in the favour of Ecuador but with all the draw cover I can find as the draw is heavily in play here I believe.
Tips
Back Ecuador (0AH) to beat USA for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with 888sport
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