St Kitts and Nevis vs USA tips: Group A clash has lop-sided look
- Matty Briggs
- 27 June 2023
The USA need a win against St Kitts and Nevis in their second Gold Cup Group A match after drawing with Jamaica last time out.
The USA are one of the strongest sides in the competition, with St Kitts and Nevis very much being the weakest, so they'll be looking to score heavily on Thursday morning.
Date, KO time and TV coverage
CONCACAF Gold Cup, Thursday June 29, Kick-off 2.30am (BST), live on Viaplay 1, stream on fuboTV.
Predicted score
St Kitts and Nevis 0-5 USA
Suggested bets
USA to win to nil
USA to win by four or more goals
USMNT verdict
The USA Gold Cup roster has an unfamiliar look about it.
After defeating Canada 2-0 in the 2022/23 CONCACAF Nations League earlier this month, just five players remain in the Gold Cup party.
It's not unusual for the USA to use fringe players for the Gold Cup, but it has not stopped them being successful. The USA have won the biennial tournament seven times and they are out to defend the trophy in their 17th tournament appearance after winning the 2021 final 1-0 against Mexico.
However, they will have to do it without the likes of Tyler Adams, Tim Ream, Cameron Carter-Vickers and new boy Folarin Balogun. In come debutants Cade Cowell, Aidan Morris, Jalen Neal, Alan Sonora, John Tolkin and Brandon Vazquez instead.
Vazquez was the hero last time out, rescuing a point in the Gold Cup opener against Jamaica. Vazquez's 88th-minute goal gave the US a 1-1 draw and they need to get a win on the board in
St Louis in the early hours of Thursday.
Despite the lack of household names, the USA's roster depth is notoriously deep in this competition.
Sean Johnson, Matt Turner, Miles Robinson, Sonora and Alex Zendejas are the five that remain from the Nations League, while Turner, Sonora and Zendejas all started in the draw with a Jamaica side that was full of big names. Adrian Mariappa, Amari'i Bell, Demarai Gray, Daniel Johnson, Leon Bailey and Michail Antonio all featured, but the US started as heavy favourites and only just got out of jail.
Still, they will be far too strong for a St Kitts and Nevis side who looked like a rabbit in the headlights in their opening 3-0 defeat to Trinidad & Tobago.
Austin Huggins' charges were only elevated into the tournament after Nicaragua were disqualified for fielding an ineligible player and they conceded three times in a match for the second time this month. The latest defeat was the worst that this team had experienced in over two years after stepping up in grade.
Conversely, USA have pedigree in this competition. Since suffering a 3-2 defeat against Mexico in the 2015 Gold Cup final, the Americans have won 39 straight matches when netting multiple times. However, they have only managed to score a single goal in each of their last five games in this competition.
B.J. Callaghan's men have not lost this year when conceding the opening goal, while they have not been beaten by a Caribbean nation since falling to Jamaica in 2019.
All of this points to a one-sided affair at CityPark and the bookies have the USA as short as 1/100 in a game they need to win after Trinidad's first-round success.
The USA are 8/13 to win to nil and they look likely to rack up the goals in this first-ever meeting between the sides.
