The American dream set to end in Mangaung/ Bloemfontein

It’s quite remarkable that the United States are in the final four of the Confederations Cup after defeats to Italy (3-1) and Brazil (3-0). The organisers must have expected their final group game against Egypt to probably be a dead rubber, although goals from Charlie Davies, Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey helped produce a six-goal swing to set up a semi-final against the European champions. Can they now pull off a shock victory at odds of 12/1 (Stan James) and book their place in the final?

The answer is probably not. After all, many think that Spain are a better team than both Brazil and Italy at the moment, so on paper they should be too strong for their opponents. Vicente Del Bosque has inherited an outstanding squad of players from Luis Aragones and they’re 2/7 (Blue Square) to be lining up for the final in Johannesburg. Indeed, some might argue that odds of 19/20 (Centrebet) are pretty attractive about the Spanish winning another piece of silverware at the weekend.

In Fernando Torres and David Villa, they boast arguably the best strike force in the world. The Liverpool striker scored a hat-trick against New Zealand in his nation’s opening group game and is 7/2 (Boylesports) to open the scoring. Expekt offer an interesting 11/10 that El Nino scores at any stage against a team that shipped six goals in their opening two matches. His strike partner also boasts three tournament goals to date, with Totesport going 7/2 that he breaks the deadlock in Mangaung/ Bloemfontein.

These teams last met just over a year ago, with Xavi Hernandez scoring the only goal of the game in Santander ahead of Spain’s successful Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. If you expect the favourites to edge it once again, Ladbrokes go 6/1 that they win 1-0, although it’s possible that an early goal from the Spanish might lead to the floodgates opening. Make no mistake, this American team has only made the semis by virtue of Italy being so off-colour and it’s not unreasonable to expect something like a 4-0 victory. Defensively, they are as stout as any team across the globe and that makes them an attractive proposition to win to nil (4/5 totesport).