Hosts in Search for a Strong Start as USA Meet Bolivia in Copa America

USA vs Bolivia - 24/06/2024

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18.06.24

Hosts in Search for a Strong Start as USA Meet Bolivia in Copa America

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The 2024 Copa America will be played in the United States, meaning we have two confederations participating in the event and that is evident in this Group C game.

The match between USA and Bolivia will be played on the 23rd of June at the AT&T Stadium. This will be the 5th time USA have played in the Copa America and the 29th appearance for Bolivia in the tournament.

Full steam ahead. 💨💨💨 pic.twitter.com/8kt58uxd9H
— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) June 17, 2024

USA come into the match having held one of the tournament favourites, Brazil, to a 1-1 draw in a friendly on the 13th of June. It was Brazil who opened the scoring in the 17th minute but it did not take long for USA to equalise and they were on level terms 9 minutes later.

The draw with Brazil means USA are undefeated in 3 of their 4 most recent fixtures in all competitions. There were wins over Jamaica and Mexico in the CONCACAF Nations League, the latter of which was the final of the competition. However, there was a disappointing 5-1 friendly loss to Colombia in the build up to the Copa America.

The stats show USA have lost each of their last 2 games in the Copa America, with the losses coming against Argentina and Colombia.

However, they did win 3 successive Copa America matches prior to those defeats and kept a clean sheet in 2 of the fixtures.

Bolivia arrive at the AT&T Stadium on the back of a 3-0 loss to Colombia in a friendly. It took only 5 minutes for Colombia to open the scoring and they added two further goals before halftime. Into the second half and both teams had a player sent off.

The defeat to Colombia means Bolivia have won only 2 of their last 14 matches in all competitions. The wins came over Peru at home in World Cup qualifying and in a friendly against Andorra. There have been recent defeats in friendlies against Mexico and Ecuador.

Form in the Copa America has been poor for Bolivia and they have lost each of their last 12 games in the competition going back to 2015.

Conceding goals has been a huge problem for Bolivia in the Copa America and they have conceded 34 goals in those 12 defeats at an average of close to 3 goals per match.

Looking ahead to the team news and USA have a significant European based contingent in their squad, including Chris Richards, Tyler Adams, Antonee Robinson, Giovanni Reyna, and Tim Ream, who all played in the English Premier League last season.

The bulk of the Bolivia squad play their football in their home country, with Luis Haquín, Miguel Terceros, Gabriel Villamil, Boris Céspedes, and Roberto Fernández being the exceptions.

Expectations will be high for USA ahead of this match and the team must cope with the pressure. Neither USA nor Bolivia have a convincing recent record in this competition but USA did win games in their most recent appearance in 2016.