Golden Cup: Guatemala s dark horse is not good enough, is the United States free to advance? United States vs. Guatemala

Golden Cup: United States vs Guatemala

Match time: 2025-07-03 07:00 Thursday

Team recent situation analysis:

The US team did not feel too much pressure to advance in this Golden Cup. The team won three games in the group stage, firmly occupying the advantageous position of promotion in the first place in the group. However, the US team encountered stubborn obstacles in the knockout season. During the regular time, the two sides shook hands 2-2, and finally they could only decide the quota of promotion through a penalty shootout. Fortunately, the American team players still withstood the pressure and successfully entered the semi-finals of the Golden Cup with a total score of 4-3 in the penalty shootout. As long as they can defeat Guatemala, which has limited strength, the American team will once again enter the final circle of this event. Since the opponents are average in strength, I believe that the American team players will definitely have a full attitude of confidence, and their fighting spirit will be more guaranteed.

It is worth mentioning that the US team still had a considerable advantage in the last game against Costa Rica. Not only did the ball possession rate exceed 60%, but the number of attempts at the goal was also eleven more than the opponent. However, facing the iron barrel formation launched by Costa Rica, the shortcomings of the American team players' lack of offensive methods have also been exposed, which means that subsequent opponents can also use active retreat to limit the US team's continuous offensive. After all, using intensive defense to balance stronger opponents has long become the first choice for weaker teams. So whether the US team can make some work with its high-point advantage is likely to directly affect the final trend of this semi-final. You should know that US team players have an absolute height advantage, and high-altitude ball competition will definitely have the upper hand.

Guatemala believes that fans should not be very familiar with them. After all, there are no big-name stars in this team. Moreover, Guatemala has a very limited competitiveness in the South American competition zone. Each World Cup qualifier can basically only play the role of a strong team experience baby. What's more, Guatemala's previous best in the Golden Cup was only the quarterfinals. It has already created a new team history record. Considering that Guatemala does not have the strength to compete for this cup championship trophy, if the team cannot show a better competitive state than before, I believe that the semi-finals will be the last battle for this team.

Of course, Guatemala was able to defeat Canada in the quarter-final knockout stage, which also had some accidental factors. Canada had already taken the lead with a penalty opportunity in the first half. However, before the end of the first half, Shaffelbor's two unsatisfactory choices ended up in the passive situation. It was precisely because of the advantage of numbers that Guatemala was able to equalize the score in the second half, which led to the highlight of the subsequent entry into the semi-finals through the penalty shootout and creating a new team record. However, it is obviously not realistic to achieve better results in the competition with an unexpected factor and a team that defends the game with strict defense.

Event analysis: There is a huge gap in strength between the US team and Guatemala. It can even be said that if the Canadian team had not "missed the front", under normal circumstances, this semi-final would have been a competition between the US team and the Canadian team for the final. But since Guatemala has set a new team record, players will definitely gain a huge increase in confidence. This confidence bonus can definitely be reflected in the players' defensive enthusiasm, which means that the US team needs to show stronger offensive firepower to collapse Guatemala's defensive system. However, considering that the US team already has a considerable high point advantage, even if the ground offense is difficult to achieve too good results, the team can still find opportunities to score through high altitude balls. I believe that the US team should still be able to easily win the final ticket from Guatemala with its stronger overall strength.