Costa Rica vs Jamaica Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Jul 06, 2015 @ 11:12 am

Next Thursday, 9th of July 2015, Costa Rica and Jamaica will go head-to-head at the StubHub Center in Carson for the opening match of Group B of the Gold Cup’s 13th edition.

The departure of Jorge Luis Pinto from the helm of Costa Rica after the 2014 World Cup did open some breaches at the structure that, currently, their new manager Paulo Wanchope, doesn’t seem able to mitigate. The former Derby County, West Ham and Manchester City’s sharpshooter assumed the interim role soon after Jorge Luis Pinto left the team after the Brazilian tournament and his first months in charge were an utter success. Paulo Wanchope won the Copa Centroamericana and, a few months later, in January 2015, he was officially appointed Costa Rica’s new head coach. Nevertheless, from that moment onwards, Wanchope’s boys have not won a single match and there are some doubts on how far the team can travel in this competition.

After being defeated by Colombia and Spain early last month, Costa Rica managed to snatch a 2-2 draw against Mexico one and a half week ago. Los Ticos took the apparent control of the match during the first-half and went to the break winning two goals to nothing. In the second-half, however, things were different with Mexico pushing higher up and scoring two goals in the first ten minutes. Costa Rica experienced some complicated moments in their defense due to Mexico’s quick attacking movements but ended up by securing the draw.

As for Jamaica, The Reggae Boyz left a very pale image of themselves behind during their Copa America’s stint last month. Jamaica lost all their three matches by 1-0 and only for shorts periods of time were they able to show what they really can do.

Their manager, the highly experienced German boss Winfried Schäfer, has a Herculean task ahead of him and he will need to rally his troops for good if he wants Jamaica to succeed in a group with such complicated teams as El Salvador, Costa Rica and even Canada.

The last time Jamaica overcame Costa Rica was back in 2010 for a friendly match, but things are very different now for both teams and from what we have seen from them recently, The Reggae Boyz will need to dig very deep in order to defeat Los Ticos.

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