Having both returned victorious from their opening fixtures at this tournament, Mexico and Jamaica are currently sharing supremacy in Group C and are both likely to feel confident about making it through the next round. Neither sparkled as such on match-day one, but it is was Mexico who were more eye-catching, albeit for the wrong reasons.
With the majority of their big-name players enjoying a rest period following their Confederations Cup antics, Mexico came into this tournament with a weakened squad. This was telling in their first match as, despite winning 3-1, they looked very shaky, particularly at the back. With this in mind, Juan Carlos Osorio’s men appear to be overpriced ahead of this match. They are indeed thought of as a much bigger footballing nation than Jamaica; however, without their key players, they’re no 1/3 shot.
The two bets that stand out ahead of this fixture are ‘Both Teams to Score’ and ‘Mexico NO Clean Sheet’. Jamaica are certainly fancied to fare better than their price suggests; however, they too were unconvincing at the back against weak opposition last time out and probably won’t have high hopes of a shutout here. From a forward perspective though, they really ought to fancy their chances, especially having seen how poorly Mexico defended against El Salvador.
As mentioned, the Mexicans turned in a very sloppy performance against El Salvador on match-day one. Going forward, they looked reasonably sound and, having taken an early lead, should’ve been in control. However, their opponents managed to find the net just minutes later and continued to threaten throughout the contest. On this evidence, it’s hard to see Osorio’s men keeping a Jamaican side who’ll certainly look to get forward quiet for too long. After all, this inexperienced and experimental Mexico squad have conceded in two of the three matches that they’ve played together and have looked defensively astute at no point during those three fixtures.
As for Jamaica, well, their opening fixture was a success, particularly from an attacking point of view. The Reggae Boys showed a willingness to get forward plenty and, although it took them a while to break down a determined Curacao defence, came up with the goods when it mattered most. The positive here is that they should have space to break into and are therefore not going to need to force a way through as the Mexicans are highly unlikely to sit deep. Having scored in each of their last five matches, it’s easy to see the Jamaican’s getting on the score-sheet. Even though they’re fancied to score, they could easily face a few problems in the defensive third. That clean sheet last time out was more down to a lack of end product from their opponents – Curacao were unable to convert any of their 21 efforts – as opposed to Jamaica keeping things especially tight. On top of this, they’ve kept just three clean sheets in their last ten, all of which came against particularly weak opposition.
Overall, much of the same is expected from this makeshift Mexico side; they may well come out on top but, unless they improve tenfold, don’t expect them to do so without encountering complications along the way.
More tips can be found here.