USA vs Colombia Betting Tips & Predictions

This is the fourth time that the US has participated in Copa America but they’ve only previously won two matches and they lost every game in their appearance in the 2007 edition in Venezuela. They have good reason to be more optimistic about their chances this time around, given they have performed pretty well in a couple of World Cups since then and more significantly have home advantage this time around.

Colombia were also impressive at the 2014 World Cup and are of course regulars in this competition. They have though only won it once and that was on home soil in 2001 and fell at the Quarter Final stage in Chile last year, losing on penalties to Argentina. Optimism is high that they can do better this time around particularly after some encouraging recent results. They made a shaky start to World Cup qualifying in South America taking just 4 points from their opening 4 games but a victory away from home at the altitude of Bolivia and a home win over early leaders Ecuador has put them back on track and given them a major boost going into this competition.

There was the suggestion that Colombia had lost their way after a highly impressive showing in Brazil two years ago when James Rodriguez was one of the stars of the tournament but they look to have rediscovered some of the exciting attacking football they had become known for. They’ve scored three goals and won but also conceded in all three games they’ve played so far in 2016.

USA are also known as being a positive side under Jurgen Klinsmann. They come into the tournament on the back of four consecutive victories including a 4-0 win against Bolivia on Sunday when Gyasi Zardes netted a brace. However defeats to the likes of Costa Rica and Guatemala this season following a poor Gold Cup campaign last summer on home soil cast doubt on their chances here and it’s hard to justify their billing as 4th favourites given there are several sides with much more quality in their ranks.

The United States are slight favourites to win this match but it’s certainly a tough one to call. It has the potential to be a good game though as both sides are naturally quite attacking and better going forward than at the back. Colombia may be without Jackson Martinez through injury and Falcao, who wasn’t selected but in the prolific Carlos Bacca they still have one of the best strikers in the competition. James Rodriguez and Juan Cuadrado will provide a goal threat from midfield too but the USA still have the talent of Clint Dempsey to rely on and he invariably rises to the big occasion for his country and is 1 goal shy of 50 international goals.

Both teams have scored in all of Colombia’s 3 matches in 2016 and there have been 4 or more goals in all of them. USA have conceded in 10 of their last 15 games which is poor when you consider they’ve played the likes of Guatemala, St Vincent and Canada during that run. They’ve only failed to score in 3 of them though and backing both teams to score at 10/11 looks to offer good value here with a score draw perhaps the most likely outcome to the opening game of the competition.