Two nations who made winning starts to their CONCACAF Gold Cup campaigns meet in Austin, Texas, in the early hours of Friday morning as Saudi Arabia takes on the hosts, USA.
Mauricio Pochettino arrived into this tournament under severe pressure, as his side suffered four straight defeats against Panama, Canada, Turkiye and Switzerland.
However, they made a perfect start to their Gold Cup campaign, as they thrashed Trinidad and Tobago 5-0 in California on Sunday night.
A double from Ex-Rangers loanee Malik Tillman gave the USA a two-goal lead after 41 minutes, with further goals from striker Patrick Agyemang and subs Paxten Aaronson and Haji Wright sealed a five-star performance from The Stars and Stripes.
Saudi Arabia also came into this tournament under pressure, as they failed to qualify automatically in the third round of their Asian World Cup Qualifying group after finishing behind both Japan and Australia.
Herve Renard, who is back in charge of his second spell as Green Falcons head coach, did see his side make a winning start to their Gold Cup campaign as they scraped past Haiti 1-0 in the early hours of Monday morning.
How the bookies view it: Hosts are favourites
The USA are favourites to make it two wins from two in Group D, with BoyleSports pricing them at just 11/20.
The same firm has Saudi as 4/1 underdogs to make it consecutive victories in the group, whilst the draw is 11/4.
Head to head: Rare meeting in recent years
This was a regular fixture in the 1990’s, with both sides facing off six times.
However, they’ve met just once in the 21st century, with that finishing in a goalless draw in September 2022.
Players to watch: Agyemang the man for USA
Despite being guilty of missing a couple of guilt-edged chances early on, Patrick Agyemang did get on the scoresheet in their group opener – perhaps a little fortunately – and the Charlotte FC striker is 39/20 at Unibet to make it five goals in his last eight appearances for his country.
Abdulrahman Al-Oboud scored in both Asian World Cup qualifiers against Bahrain and Australia at the beginning of the month, and the Al Ittihad frontman may come in from the start here after coming on at halftime in their victory over Haiti.
Predicted line-ups:
Saudi Arabia will have to make a change in central defence, as their captain Hassan Kadesh lasted just 32 minutes against Haiti in their group opener.
As already mentioned, Paxten Aaronson and Haji Wright netted off the bench against Trinidad and Tobago, but Pochettino may select the same starting 11 to the one that started.
Saudi Arabia: Al-Aqidi, Abdulhamid, Al Amri, Madu, Bu Washl, Al-Hassan, Al-Johani, Al-Ghamdi, Al-Sahafi, Al-Hammami, Al-Oboud
USA: Freese, Freeman, Richards, Ream, Arfsten, de la Torre, Berhalter, McGlynn, Tillman, Luna, Agyemang
Anything else catch the eye?
As alluded to above, both nations began their CONCACAF Gold Cup campaigns in a winning manner, but the hosts were far more convincing, as they put five unanswered goals past Trinidad and Tobago, whilst The Green Falcons had to rely on a first-half penalty to squeeze past Haiti.
To say Saudi’s games in the last few months have been dull is an understatement, with their previous six clashes producing just nine goals.
Whilst a USA win is too short to back on its own, combining it with under 4.5 goals pays 5/6 at Betway, and that is my preferred way to approach this one.
GambleAware