The Joker's Bet Of The Day: Wednesday June 3

The Joker's bet of the day / The Joker / 03 June 2009 / Leave a Comment

A tip from the Joker to get your betting day under way....

Costa Rica are the most successful team in the history of Central American football, the only one ever to have won a match at a World Cup. But how much do people know about Los Ticos?

There's Paolo Wanchope, of course, in whose debt many of us remain for his wonderful debut goal in Derby County's 3-2 win against Manchester United. La Cobra's long-time strike partner for the national team was La Pelican, Hernan Medford.

The Joker's already struggling, although there's something about a 1-0 win over Scotland at the back of his mind. Other than that, wasn't there a Mauricio Solis, who joined Derby as Wanchope's water carrier, but never really made it?

Standards in Central America are not high, or at least not memorable, but they are high enough to cause the USA some problems this evening. Costa Rica have not conceded a single goal at home in nine competitive matches, although 'competitive' might be stretching things a little - Fifa make 39th-ranked Honduras the best team they've faced.

It's not clear that they deserve to be, but the USA are currently 15th. Team America do have the happy knack of scoring on the road, having located the onion bag in each of their last five World Cup qualifiers, but that hasn't stopped them drawing with El Salvador and losing to Trinidad recently. Both those games went Over 2.5 Goals, and that's the suggestion for this one too.

Recommendation: Back Over 2.5 goals at [2.26] in Costa Rica v USA