The 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup semi-finals are all set as Canada and the United States have joined Qatar and Mexico in the final four.
While Canada looked fairly comfortable in their 2-0 victory over Costa Rica, the United States needed a late goal to get past Jamaica, 1-0. That unconvincing performance raises more questions about the Americans’ chances of reclaiming the title this year.
Read on below as SBOTOP shares its top takeaways from the last two quarter-final ties.
Canada deliver most impressive performance yet
Canada are back in the semi-finals of the Gold Cup for the first time in 14 years after their impressive 2-0 win over Costa Rica.
The Canadians completely dominated the Costa Ricans, who did not have a single shot on target over the entire match and had just four shots in total.
Canada, on the other hand, had 15 shots total and five on target. Junior Hoilett had given them the early lead before Stephen Eustaquio sealed the victory in the second half.
Without a doubt, this performance has to go down as Canada’s most convincing yet in this tournament. They had been the better side against the US in their group stage meeting, but they could not overcome their very early deficit as they fell to a 1-0 defeat.
This match against Costa Rica showed just how impressive the Canadians are on both sides of the ball. They look quite capable offensively, even without Bayern Munich starlet Alphonso Davies. Moreover, the Canadians had to make do without injured forwards Ayo Akinola and Cyle Larin, who had been the team’s leading scorer in the tournament with three goals.
The Canadians boast some impressive depth in attack with the likes of Hoilett and Eustaquio, who also now has three goals in the tournament, capable of producing CONCACAF Gold Cup 2021 highlights.
Canada’s defence has been quite impressive as well. They completely shut down a formidable Costa Rican attack featuring the dangerous Joel Campbell. And apart from the first-minute goal they conceded against the US, they hardly gave the Americans an opening throughout the rest of the match.
Of course, the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2021 betting odds will still favour Mexico over Canada in the semi-finals. But the Canucks should not be discounted by any means given how well they have performed in this competition.
USMNT still look less than convincing
While Canada cruised, the US needed to wait until the 83rd minute for young Matthew Hoppe to get their winning goal against Jamaica.
This Gold Cup was always going to be a bit of a tricky tournament for the US. They are without several of their Europe-based stars, which left them with a significantly understrength squad that was missing their best players.
And it should not come as much of a surprise that they have not exactly looked all that convincing thus far. They won all three group games, but in between their 6-1 thrashing of minnows Martinique, they laboured to 1-0 wins over Haiti and Canada, opting to sit back after taking an early lead.
The defence has at least been a big positive for coach Gregg Berhalter. The USMNT have conceded just one goal through four games, and that came from the penalty spot. They kept a clean sheet against Canada and did the same against the dangerous Reggae Boyz of Jamaica in the quarters.
But the big concern for the US is the attack. They have done well to take the lead against the best teams they’ve faced in Canada and Jamaica. But if they fall behind, do they have the firepower to come back? Based on what they’ve shown thus far, it doesn’t seem like they do.
Semis shaping up to be highly competitive
So, the semi-finals are set: the United States will face Qatar and Canada will take on defending champions Mexico.
Based on how the four teams have fared in this tournament, we could be in for two very competitive semi-finals. The two favourites, Mexico and the US, have leaned heavily on their strength defensively; they have combined to concede just one goal in their eight total games.
Qatar and Canada have also shown they are quite capable defensively and could be more cautious than usual in the semi-finals given the quality of their opponents.
But with the attacking quality the Qataris and Canucks have displayed throughout the tournament – they are the top scorers with 12 and 10 goals, respectively – they have the firepower to cause a surprise in the semis.
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