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Mexico will face the toughest match in the group stage when they face Jamaica, as the two teams battle it out for the top spot in the group. Only the group winners get a ticket to the second round and both Mexico and Jamaica can be considered the best teams of this group, as they have shown in their previous two games.
In a weird coincidence, CONCACAF seems to have known this and set up a sort of D-Day for this competition, with all groups having clashes between the two favorite teams. Besides Mexico vs Jamaica, we will have the match between Panama and Canada (the favorites from Group D) and Guatemala and El Salvador (Group F). This all a day after the same thing happened in the rest of the groups with USA playing Trinidad and Tobago (favorites Group A), Honduras playing Cuba (favorites Group C) and Costa Rica playing Haiti (favorites of Group E).
Mexico has had a great start to a tournament, in which it’s one of the main candidates to win it all. Still, it will all be for nothing if they can’t get past Jamaica. Mexico crushed both Nicaragua and Saint Martin. Jamaica, on the other hand, got victories, but they could only beat Grenada by a late goal (Grenada then went on to lose 3-0 against one of the weakest teams in the group Aruba) and then Nicaragua by a score of 3-0.
That said, Jamaica are a team that is never easy for Mexico. Speed and physicality has given Mexican teams trouble at times, especially the Mexico senior team who they eliminated from the 2017 Gold Cup. Also, youth tournament are notorious for their inconsistent results, so past performances aren’t as big as indications as senior results.
However, Mexico is the better team, and if they continue producing, they should be favored to win. Mexico did drop in level of play from their opener, but they had rested most of their starters, as only two players started both games. It will be tough, but if Mexico is supposed to be a candidate to do something in the U-20 World Cup, now is the time to start proving things.
Date: Tuesday, November 6
Time: 4:00 pm Pacific, 6:00pm Central, 7:00pm Eastern
Venue: IMG Soccer Stadium, Bradenton, Florida
TV: Univision Deportes Network(US-Spanish), FOX Sports (Mexico)
Streaming: fuboTV (Free trial + monthly subscription), CONCACAF GO