Detailed USMNT vs Martinique Gold Cup Prediction 2021
The USMNT will play host to Martinique on Thursday, July 15 in Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, KS—kickoff is at 9:30 pm EST. This match will be the second for both teams in Group B, which also includes Canada and Haiti. Martinique lost to Canada in a brutal 4-1 opener while the US squeezed a 1-0 win out of Haiti.
The U.S., being the highest-ranked team in the group at 20 according to FIFA and 7-1-0 so far in 2021, are the favorites. Martinique entered the tournament with quite the opposite expectation. They are not a member of FIFA, so they have no ranking nor have they played a competitive match since 2019 in the Concacaf Nations League. How will this affect our USMNT vs Martinique Gold Cup prediction? Let’s find out!
USMNT’s Ways to Win
The separation between these two teams is huge. The USMNT will be taking this game very seriously, but they are surely not going to be intimidated. This is going to be an opportunity for Berhalter to rest players, test out tactics or formations, and see how deep his team is. This Gold Cup roster is already a B-team so to speak, so this game will be a moment for younger or less inexperienced players to put some international touches under their belt.
This is all to say, the USMNT has plenty of ways to win. They should be pound for pound better players than Martinique—more technical, more fit, more athletic. This kind of matchup means that the USMNT needs to put Martinique under a tremendous amount of pressure.
Do not play with a line of confrontation; do not play passively. Press the ball high and attack directly. Shoot often. If you lose the ball in the final third, defend immediately and defend towards the ball. Unless a counter-attack is imminent, pressure the ball once it is lost and do not give Martinique time to breathe.
Gettin’ loose at training today. Two days until we go again vs. Martinique! 👊 🇺🇸
🎟’s for Thursday’s match @CMPark: https://t.co/KIoe3j8iO3 #MTQvUSA pic.twitter.com/TVyWPjXhwY
— U.S. Soccer MNT (@USMNT) July 13, 2021
Martinique’s Ways to Win
Moving on with USMNT vs Martinique Gold Cup prediction, let’s talk about Martinique! They will definitely be intimidated and after a pretty tough result against Canada, they might not like their chances against the USMNT. They got the first goal of the match 10 minutes in against Canada by pressing high and capitalizing on a mistake.
They should be doing the same thing against the USMNT, at least for the first 20 minutes. It will be a USMNT defense that does not have a lot of experience together, so testing them out at the beginning before they have settled in will be a small advantage Martinique might be able to grab a goal from.
If Martinique wants to win, they simply have to defend better. They gave up a set piece on a header nobody on Martinique jumped for. They have a plethora of holes in transition with players not communicating runners, or just not tracking back entirely.
Missed passes in the defensive third need to be cleaned up as well. They need to take care of the ball and defend as a unit. They haven’t played a game together in 2-3 years. It’s understandable. But, if they want to win, they need to clean things up.
USMNT vs Martinique Gold Cup Prediction
It’s not a bold prediction to say the USMNT will win this one-handedly. It’s just a matter of by how much. The USMNT might really want to increase their goal differential and pack in the goals. If so, this one could be tough for Martinique. A definite win for the USMNT and one by at least three goals.
Prediction: USMNT 5 Martinique 0
That would be all for today, folks!
Make sure you stay tuned for more awesome soccer betting picks!
