2015 Gold Cup Odds – Host USA, Mexico Favored

Once the Copa America is over, CONMEBOL’s lesser cousin, CONCACAF, will get its time in the spotlight with the 2015 Gold Cup.

As usual, Mexico and this year’s host, Team USA, enter as favorites for the biennial tourney, which runs from July 7-29. But Latin America’s newest soccer power, Costa Rica, should put up a strong push.

The winner of the tournament will face off with the US (the 2013 Gold Cup champs) in a battle to represent CONCACAF at the 2017 Confederations Cup.

Below, we take a closer look at the main favorites and set the odds for all 12 teams in the field.

USA (3/2): Jürgen Klinsmann has turned Team USA into a counterattacking force. The team comes into the tournament arguably as hot as it’s ever been, surprising two huge soccer powerhouses – the Netherlands (4-3) and Germany (2-1) – in June friendlies. The USA’s 2013 Gold Cup win has already guaranteed them a spot in the two-team Confederations Cup playoff. But, playing on home soil, nothing less than another first-place finish will be considered a success.

Mexico (3/2): The Mexicans are six-time Gold Cup winners and snagged the 2011 and 2009 titles. They should have little difficulty in the group stage facing Guatemala, Trinidad & Tobago, and Cuba – three of the weakest sides in the field.  But, at some point, they’re going to have to get past rivals US and/or Costa Rica – both of whom are playing well and boast a style that will give El Tri problems.

Costa Rica (4/1): The Ticos have perhaps the best value of the three teams that have a legitimate shot at winning the 2015 Gold Cup. Costa Rica have never won this tournament, reaching the final only in 2001, but after getting to the quarterfinals in the 2014 World Cup – which required escaping a “group of death” with Uruguay, Italy, and England – expectations are high. Unfortunately, the team will have two key absences from its World Cup squad: manager Jorge Luis Pinto has given way to Paulo Cesar Wanchope, who’s never managed a team before, and goalkeeper Keylor Navas, who plays his club football with Spanish power Real Madrid, is sidelined with an injury.

Panama (16/1): Manager Hernan Dario Gomez is trying to turn Panama into CONCACAF’s next Costa Rica. But things aren’t playing out as hoped for the Colombian, who is now coaching for his job. The team was recently crushed by Ecuador, 4-0, in a friendly and rumor has it that Panama may need to at least reach the finals (which they haven’t done since 2005) in order for Gomez to keep his spot on the bench.

Honduras (24/1): Ex-Costa Rica coach Jorge Luis Pinto is now in charge of Honduras, and there’s a lot of pressure to emulate what he did with the Ticos at Brazil 2014.  Pinto is a defensive-minded coach whose teams rely on counterattacks to produce limited offense. Honduras’ best finish in the Gold Cup was a second-place showing back in 1991. But they’re playing well lately, narrowly losing to Brazil away (1-0), drawing Paraguay away (2-2), and beating both El Salvador (2-0) and French Guiana (3-0) at home in their last four.

Canada (40/1): Canada are the only team other than Mexico and the USA to win the Gold Cup (in its current iteration), taking the title back in 2000. But, drawn into a group with Costa Rica, the Canadians aren’t likely to take top spot in the group stage, which could lead to a very tough quarterfinal match (if they advance that far). That said, they’ll get to face Costa Rica on home soil in one of the two matches in the tournament being played at Toronto’s BMO Field.

Jamaica (45/1): Jamaica may be the most practised team coming into the tournament. They were one of the North American representatives in the 2015 Copa America where they were put in an extremely tough group with Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. While they played competitively, Jamaica lost all three matches by the same 1-0 score. They’ll have to find the back of the net if they hope to make waves at the Gold Cup.

The Field:

• Trinidad & Tobago (60/1)
• Guatemala (90/1)
• El Salvador (95/1)
• Haiti (100/1)
• Cuba (250/1)

(Photo credit: Steindy (talk) 21:33, 22 November 2013 (UTC) (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)