2015 Gold Cup Betting – Costa Rica vs. El Salvador
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:39 am ESTPublished:
Costa Rica (-150) vs. El Salvador (+550), Draw (+260)
All four teams in Group B of the 2015 Gold Cup earned a single point in the first set of fixtures. Tomorrow, two Central American nations, Costa Rica and El Salvador, will meet in the second fixture at BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston (9 PM Eastern Time) looking to take the full three points and all but guarantee themselves a spot in the knockout stage.
Costa Rica disappointed as Group B favorites, drawing 2-2 with Jamaica and displaying a poor defensive scheme. Coach Paulo Wanchope is an offensive-minded manager who wants to attack at all costs, but it makes Costa Rica vulnerable against good counter-attacking teams and the Jamaicans took full advantage.
The porous defensive performance on Wednesday was just the latest in a string for the Ticos, who have given up at least one goal in ten of the last eleven matches.
El Salvador, meanwhile, recorded a scoreless draw against Canada. Neither team was aggressive enough to find the net, though El Salvador did force the Canadian keeper to make six saves on the night.
The empty scoreline was nothing new for Los Cuscatlecos. The team has won just one of their last seven games (against a weak Saint Kitts and Nevis side, to boot) and has failed to score in five of those.
Head-to-head, El Salvador last trumped Costa Rica back in 2009 during the 2014 World Cup qualifiers; since that date, the Ticos have won three of five meetings (including a 1-0 win in the last match during the 2013 Central American Cup) to go along with two draws.
Costa Rica have a more talented and experienced team and, with their last match coming against Canada in Toronto, know that a win is necessary tomorrow. That said, El Salvador will battle tooth-and-nail. Look for the Ticos to win a hard-fought, one-goal game.
Pick: Costa Rica -150.
(Photo credit: Danilo Borges/Portal da Copa [CC BY 3.0 br (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/br/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)
Sports Writer
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
