Soccer World Cup Preview: USA vs. Belgium

Soccer World Cup Play: USA vs. Belgium

Like Argentina for example (it was well noticed Argentina's problems early today vs. Switzerland), Belgium had some great expectations pre-tournament (they were ranked #5 odds-wise before the tournament) and even though they have won all their 3 games, their performance has been subpar – they needed late goals in all their games to win.

Their biggest problem has been the same since the start:

“In the first game of the day, Belgium had some tremendous problems to defeat Algeria. I’ve mentioned on Twitter: “By playing w/ 4 pure Full-backs, Belgium doesn't have width on the wings, way too narrow = easier to defend”. This was in full display yesterday against a defensive minded Algeria team. They are considered to be one of the dark horses to win the competition, but their positioning on the field was subpar and against real top quality teams they will be prone to be exposed.”

I’ve just confirmed their starting lineup for today, and once again, they will start w/ 4 pure full-backs. This USA team is well organized defensively and without width on the wings, I expect Belgium to struggle once again to generate build-up plays because almost all their offensive game goes through the center of the field.

USA’s fighting spirit has been remarkable and they are here being #2 of one of the toughest groups of the competition, the same thing cannot be said about Belgium as their path was way easier w/ games vs. Algeria, Korea Republic and Russia. 

I expect this contest to be a close one and all this favoritism for the European side does not get along in my opinion.

My Lean was USA (+0.5)