Argentina v USA

Internationals / Editor / 27 June 2007 / Leave a Comment

While European football takes its summer break, the biggest international tournament in South America is taking place in Venezuela. The Copa America 2007 kicked off this week with the opening matches in the three groups. The favourites for this year's tournament are Argentina, on offer at 2.36 and they are available ahead of old rivals Brazil, who are on offer at 3.35.

Argentina begin their 2007 campaign with an opening fixture against USA in Venezuela's second largest city, Maracaibo, with kick off at 01.45am on Friday. Following the disappointment of their penalty shoot-out defeat to Brazil in the final of the 2003 Copa America, Argentina are seeking their first championship since 1993.

New coach Alfio Basile has opted to select a strong squad featuring Argentina's top players from home and Europe. Kaka and Ronaldinho have withdrawn from the Brazil squad, but Lionel Messi, Hernan Crespo and Juan Roman Riquelme are all included in Argentina's 22.

Carlos Tevez, Javier Mascherano and Gabriel Heinze represent the Premiership in Argentina's squad while former Manchester United midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron is also set for a run-out.

The two-time World Cup winners are favourites at 1.41 to begin this tournament with a win against the USA, who are available at 13.5 to cause an early upset and take the three points.

Their opponents will be full of confidence, having just won their fourth Gold Cup on Sunday with a 2-1 victory over Mexico. USA came back from a goal down as Landon Donovan and Benny Feilhaber clinched the two vital goals in Chicago.

With only days between the tournaments, USA coach Bob Bradley has rested key players from the Gold Cup squad. Donovan, Clint Dempsey, DaMarcus Beasley and Tim Howard are all absent from the Copa America squad. Bradley has opted to inject some new blood into a young squad that includes three uncapped players and ten youngsters under 23 years of age. Their main strike threat will come from Eddie Johnson and Taylor Twellman, who both play in Major League Soccer.

The USA are making their third appearance as invited guests to the South American tournament and their first since 1995. That proved to be their most successful year when they finished fourth, after losing the semi-final 1-0 to Brazil.

The only previous meeting between these sides in the event took place in Uruguay in 1995 when the USA trounced Argentina 3-0. A similar scoreline is not expected this time around and Betfair customers interested in the "Correct Score" market can get a decent price on the same result 12 years later.
More recently in 2003, Argentina took revenge when they beat the USA 1-0 in a friendly in Miami. A repeat of a 1-0 victory for Argentina in the early hours of Friday morning can be backed at 8.

Bradley's outfit are in good form, having won all six matches in this summer's North American Gold Cup, scoring thirteen goals. However it is expected to be a more difficult task in South America and, with a mainly untried squad, the Americans remain outsiders.

The USA's young squad has offered little appeal to punters as they trade at 44 to win their first Copa America. They are tipped to struggle in the competition in a group that also contains Paraguay and Colombia.

Brazil's Adriano was the 2004 Copa America top goalscorer with seven goals but, with the Inter Milan star missing from this year's competition, Argentina's Hernan Crespo is expetced to be among the favourites for top marksman. At 31 years of age, Crespo is still one of Argentina's top goal poachers and he will hope to add to his 32 goals in 62 appearances for his country.

Strikers Diego Milito and Javier Saviola will also be fancied for top goalscorer, while West Ham United's Carlos Tevez has scored six times in 29 outings for Argentina and could tempt some punters.

The tournament opened on Tuesday evening with Peru beating Uruguay 3-0 and hosts Venezuela holding Bolivia to a 2-2 draw, continuing the 2004 trend of high-scoring encounters, when a total of 78 goals were scored in 26 matches. Argentina were the highest goal getters with 16 goals in six games. More than 3.5 goals on Friday morning can be backed at 3.05 and over 4.5 goals is on offer at 6.2 in an emerging market.

Argentina have had plenty of time to prepare for the tournament since their 1-1 draw with Switzerland in Basel on June 2. Tevez grabbed a second-half opener and they held the lead for a further 15 minutes until Marco Streller equalised for the home nation. This year Argentina have played two more friendlies, drawing 0-0 with Chile and beating France 1-0.

The Argentines kicked off the 2004 Copa America with a 6-1 thrashing of Ecuador. On that night Saviola grabbed a second-half hat-trick. Another hat-trick on Friday can be backed at 16.5 in a developing Betfair market.

Maracaibo is on the northern coast of this oil rich county and average temperatures in June are expected to be around 32C. Fortunately the encounter kicks off at 8.45pm local time when temperatures are expected to be lower.

The teams' second matches in Group C are on Monday night when Argentina stay in Maracaibo and take on Colombia and the USA play Paraguay in Barinas.