Having come out on top on match-day one, Martinique, who’re playing in the Gold Cup for just the fifth time in their existence, come into this fixture against USA as group leaders. With that win behind them, the Caribbean team should be feeling pretty good about their chances here. In contrast, USA, who’ve assembled a weak-looking squad for this tournament, turned in a fairly poor performance first time out as they drew 1-1 with Panama.
After that disappointing result last time out, it’s surprising that USA come into this second match so heavily fancied. They’re of course the bigger footballing nation out of these two and, at full strength, are a useful outfit. However, with many of their big players out of this tournament – Clint Dempsey, Christian Pulisic, Fabian Johnson, Bobby Wood and Michael Bradley have all been left out of the squad – it’s hard to fancy them as much. Their performance against Panama left plenty to be desired and so it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise if they weren’t quite capable of wiping the floor – something that a price of 1/6 suggests they should be doing – with their opponents here.
Martinique created a good impression when beating Nicaragua with relative comfort, particularly from an attacking point of view. Against what is very much a second-string USA side, they ought to fancy their chances. The two bets that stand out are ‘USA NO Clean Sheet’ and ‘Martinique +2 Handicap’. Based on the respective performances of this pair last time out, there’s absolutely no reason as to why Martinique cannot both get on the score-sheet and prevent themselves from being embarrassed.
The manner in which Martinique showed a willingness to always try and get forward was eye-catching against Nicaragua. OK, they didn’t exactly face the most testing of opponents, although this inexperienced USA side are no world beaters either. If we add in the way in which the USA defended against Panama, as they allowed their weak opponents 12 shots (six of which were on target), then it really isn’t difficult to see Martinique coming up with the goods in the final third on Thursday evening. After all, they come into this match having scored in nine of their last ten. On top of this, Louis Marianne’s men have avoided a three goal defeat in each of their last ten too. In fact, they’ve only been beaten by three or more goals once since 2008 and only once in 12 previous Gold Cup matches.
As touched on above, USA’s performance against Panama really didn’t catch the eye, or rather it did but for all the wrong reasons. They looked laboured going forward and allowed their opposition attacking ground far too easily. Without their big players, it’s fair to say that they struggled to create clear-cut opportunities and it’s hard to see them coming up with a massive improvement here in all honesty.
All things considered, after two contrasting performances last time out, Martinique, who come into this match as 14/1 outsiders, are fancied to both get competitive going forward and avoid a convincing defeat.
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