United States vs Paraguay Betting Tips & Predictions

United States saw their manager Jurgen Klinnsmann put under a bit of pressure after they lost their opening game of their home Copa America against Colombia, but they bounced back with style on Wednesday.

Clint Dempsey opened the scoring with a penalty after just nine minutes, and fellow key player Jermaine Jones doubled their lead eight minutes before the break before Bobby Wood settled the tie five minutes later, with both of those goals being assisted by the excellent Clint Dempsey. The second half brought little threat from Costa Rica as they knew the game was up, and  substitute Graham Zusi put the icing on the cake with a goal just before the final whistle to make it 4-0.

This puts United States in prime position to qualify for the knockout stages. A draw against Paraguay would probably be enough, providing Costa Rica don’t do the sensational and beat Colombia by a seven goal margin. However, topping the group looks unlikely as it would require Colombia losing to Costa Rica.

United States win against Costa Rica was their 5th win in their last six matches, and they have only lost twice in their last 11 outings. Considering they have beaten Iceland and Ecuador during this period avoiding defeat against Paraguay shouldn’t be too difficult a task for them.

Paraguay did put in a good shift against Colombia after they opened the Copa America with a goalless draw against Costa Rica. They went into half-time 2-0 down after Carlos Bacca opened with a header and James Rodriguez finished sublimely to double the lead. Paraguay fought back though and forced David Ospina into a few spectacular saves before substitute Victor Ayala fired a long range shot past him. With Paraguay pushing for an equaliser their task was made much more difficult when Oscar Romero was dismissed after picking up two yellow cards in three minutes.

This loss made it five games without a win for Paraguay, two of which they have lost. They have only won two of their last 14 matches as well, losing to Argentina, Peru (twice), Chile, Mexico, and Colombia on the way.

I think United States’ comprehensive win and excellent performance will boost them ahead of their final group game, and this should spur them on to get a win. Their squad is generally better than the Paraguay set up and Clint Dempsey was fantastic against Costa Rica, so odds of 1/1 for a United States win look good value. I’m backing a 2-1 correct score prediction at 8/1 as well.