El Tri, the Mexican men’s national soccer team, starts its run at the Copa America on Saturday night, June 22, with a match it’s supposed to win against Jamaica.
Mexico hadn’t had the smoothest of run-ups to this game, but may have found something in a 3-2 friendly loss to Brazil on Saturday when a late Mexican rally from two goals down ended when Brazil found a winner in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
None of El Tri’s matches are too far from Mexico, with it opening match in Houston being the furthest away they’ll get in the group stage.
The match is set for 7 p.m. Mountain time Saturday, June 22 at NRG Stadium in Houston.
It will be televised on FOX Sports 1.
El Tri is a -170 favorite (wager $170 to win $100, $27 total). The over-under on goals is 2.5, what it is for most games, so Mexico is supposed to win 2-0 or 2-1.
Mexico is ranked 13th in the world FIFA rankings while Jamaica is 55th.
This is the first of three group stage games for Mexico in Group B with Jamaica, Ecuador and Venezuela. The top two teams in the group advance to the eight-team knockout stage. Winning the group would seem the most likely way to avoid playing defending champion Argentina in the quarterfinals.
7 p.m. Mountain time Saturday, June 22 vs. Jamaica, NRG Stadium, Houston
7 p.m. Mountain time, June 26 vs. Venezuela, SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, Calif.
5 p.m. Mountain time, June 30 vs. Ecuador, State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Ariz.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.
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