The USA will play Honduras as the Gold Cup 2015 tournament gets underway on Tuesday night. The United States women's team just celebrated winning the World Cup last week, and now it'll be the men's turn in trying to claim the CONCACAF Gold Cup. They kick things off at the Toyota Stadium in Texas with a start time of 9.30 p.m. ET. The game can be watched on TV on the Fox Sports 1 channel or online through live stream via the link below.
The USA will come into the tournament full of confidence after showing excellent form in their recent friendlies, which saw them defeat both the Netherlands and Germany. A win in the Gold Cup would guarantee the United States an automatic qualification place for the Confederations Cup in 2017. If they fail here then they would head towards a playoff to get in.
However, even though the USA have experienced some excellent results recently, they will know that they came in friendlies, and competitive tournament matches will be much more intensive with a lot more at stake.
Honduras will be a stern test of the United States' credentials for this Gold Cup. They are a solid team that is expected to go far in the tournament, so expect the USA to have to work hard to claim their win today.
If they do not hit the ground running today then there is a real danger that they could drop points, so they have to continue their good form from their friendlies into the Gold Cup.
Both teams in tonight's match up will know the importance of getting off to a good start, and this group will be unforgiving, containing another big team in Panama.
Coming into the tournament, Honduras' last result was a 0-0 draw with Mexico, who are also expected to be contenders for the Gold Cup, showing that they can compete and make life difficult for the top teams.
Honduras are likely to adopt similar tactics to that game, where they played a 5-4-1 formation to stifle Mexico's attack, and break down the game. They will look to frustrate the United States going forward and look for a chance to expose an opening themselves to get the win. They will not want to allow the game to become an open and expansive match as that could play into the USA's hands with some strong players who will immediately pounce if they are given too much space.
USA skipper, Michael Bradley, played amazingly in his team's friendly wins over the Netherlands and Germany. Today he will win his 100th cap and will want to celebrate that mark with a solid win and another top performance.
Honduras will see the United States as their toughest opponents in this group so they will certainly see a draw as a good result. They of course will hope to sneak the win, but their priority will be to keep things tight and make sure they don't fall behind to an early goal. If they can get to half time having stifled the USA attack then they will feel a draw is in their reach and will also look to see if they can steal the game with a quick counter.
Honduras striker Lozano will be their main hope up front, but expect him to start the game by himself as the team packs the defense and midfield area to close any gaps.
Today's big Gold Cup 2015 game between the USA and Honduras has a start time of 9.30 p.m. ET and can be watched on TV on the Fox Sports 1 channel or online through live stream by clicking here.
