USA vs Cuba Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Jul 17, 2015 @ 12:19 am

Next Saturday, 18th of July 2015, the current trophy holders, USA, will measure forces against Cuba at the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on what will be the first match of the Gold Cup's Quarter-finals.

Despite being firm favourites to renew their champions’ title, the US team’s performances in the tournament have been fairly disappointing so far. After narrow wins over Honduras and Haiti, Jürgen Klinsmann’s men failed to apply the same recipe to Panama in their last group stage match.

During their last Tuesday’s match against Panama, the US team was once again fairly apathetic during the first forty-five minutes and for that reason Los Canaleros’ goal came, to no surprise, on the 33rd minute when Luis Tejada assisted Blas Perez and the FC Dallas' striker put his team in the lead. The US team's sloppy marking back in the defence caused them yet another major upset and might cause them several more in future matches if Klinsmann fails to improve the team’s back quartet positioning and marking duties.

Half-time, however, proved to be a good thing for the USA and early after the break the current Gold Cup champions granted the equalizer thanks to a goal from their captain, Michael Bradley. The goal came as a result of a highly synchronized team move, with Bedoya assisting Michael “The Craftsman” Bradley for a quality goal.

As for Cuba, they are probably the most unlikely surprise at this stage of the competition, but the truth is that they've made it thanks to their narrow win over Guatemala in their last group match.

The Cubans started the tournament off on the wrong foot, as they were severely hammered by Mexico 6-0 at the Soldier Field in Chicago. Regardless of the heavy lost and their defeat against Trinidad & Tobago a few days later, Cuba’s boss Raul Gonzalez managed to rally the troops and the Leones del Caribe sealed an outstanding win over Guatemala in the last clash of their group. A lonely goal by Maikel Reyes on the 72nd minute of the match proved to be enough to surpass Guatemala, thus eliminating them from the tournament.

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