Copa America Betting – USA Open Tourney vs Colombia
USA (+180) vs Colombia (+170), Draw (+220)
The host Americans will get a huge challenge right out of the gate in the 2016 Copa America Centenario when they take on Colombia in the first game of Group A and the opening match of the tournament, this Friday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California (9:30 PM Eastern).
Despite having home-turf advantage, Team USA are a slight underdog for Friday’s game. The team has not performed well over the past few months – which came as a surprise after a decent 2014 World Cup showing – and now manager Jürgen Klinsmann is coaching for his job. He probably needs to take the team deep into the tournament on home soil to keep himself employed.
The team has lost its identity of late. At their best, the Americans had a disciplined defense and strong counter-attack. Now, they lack cohesion on both sides of the ball.
The team has put up decent results in friendlies, but they’ve been beating up on smaller nations liks Guatemala and Ecuador, and they haven’t gotten results when it counts lately; they lost in the semis of the Gold Cup to Jamaica in 2015, and then fell 3-2 (home) to Mexico in the CONCACAF Cup later in the year.
On the side is a Colombian squad that knows exactly how it wants to play. Colombia always play fast, relying on their bevy of skilled attackers. Their aggressive game plan helped them reach the quarterfinals of the 2014 World Cup before being eliminated by host Brazil.
Star striker James Rodriguez could be poised for a big tournament. The prolific international scorer didn’t get a lot of minutes with Real Madrid this season, and he’ll be looking to take out any lingering frustrations in the Copa. He’ll be joined by Carlos Bacca and Juan Cuadrado, who both had outstanding seasons in the Serie A this year.
The trio will lead a Colombian attack that should be one of the best in the tournament.
Since 2007, Colombia and Team USA have squared off three times, and Colombia holds a decisive 2-1-0 edge. That includes a 1-0 win the last time they met in this tournament (2007 in Venezuela). I expect the South Americans to continue that trend against an American team still searching for a firm identity.
Pick: Colombia (+170).
(Photo Credit: Nathan Forget (Flickr: USA – Honduras 13) CC BY 2.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.)
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.
