Potential Banana Skin for United States
The United States start the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup as one of the favourites for the tournament. As a regular host of the tournament, United States have appeared in nine of the last thirteen CONCACAF Gold Cup finals.
However, in 2015 they failed to make the final, having reached the previous three in a row and have won only one of the last four CONCACAF Gold Cup tournaments. In 2015 they finished fourth, losing to Panama in the third and fourth place playoff.
This year, United States start their campaign with a match against Panama in Group B and will have revenge on their mind.
United States and Panama have been drawn in Group B along with Martinique and Nicaragua. Thanks to this potentially easy draw, both nations should not have a problem in qualifying for the quarter-final but will want to finish top of the group to avoid a tough draw.
This places extra significance on this game and both teams know a win will put them on the front foot for the remainder of the tournament.
Trends show the United States are undefeated in their last eight matches, four of which have been in World Cup qualifying and four of which have been friendly games. At present, World Cup qualifying is looking far from secure and United States are third in the group, 6 points off Mexico who are top.
United States have won two of their last six World Cup qualifying games, tasting defeat to Mexico and Costa Rica and being held by Panama and in the reverse fixture in Mexico. The draw in Mexico was a good result and gives Bruce Arena something to build on.
Panama have proven to be one of the toughest teams to beat in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying. Trends show they have lost just one of their six group games and remain in contention to qualify for the tournament in Russia.
They have lost just one of their last six games in all competitions but have struggled to win any of their last four. With one defeat and three draws in their last four games, Panama are proving difficult to beat but cannot win games.
The United States squad looks young and exciting for this tournament but does lack experience. Dom Dwyer scored on his debut in the friendly win over Ghana and should start in attack and Kellyn Acosta may also have played himself into the starting XI following that match.
Panama coach Hernan Dario Gomez has named a young-looking squad, with experienced forwards Blas Perez and Luis Tejada not involved. Jaime Penedo will also be missing, as he has goalkeeping duties with his club in Romania.
Both nations have named squads which have an experimental feel to them but Panama are sure to keep the same approach to games and dig in to get a result. This could make for a scrappy match with a low number of goal scoring chances. A draw and under 2.5 goals seems like a good bet for this game but with the home advantage, United States may just nick it by a single goal.
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