30/05: USA vs Belgium

You won't probably know this, but we at Betting Helper are from Belgium. After long years of disappointment after disappointment and not qualifying for any major tournament we can again be proud of our national team. With 16/18 in their world cup qualification group, it looks like the Red Devils will finally qualify for a world cup. Next friday they will play the important match against Serbia at home, but first they take on the USA in a friendly.


Tonight, there is no place for keeper Courtois (has to play with Atletico Madrid) and midfielders Hazard (injured) and Witsel in the Belgian squad. Coach Wilmots will use this opportunity to rotate and he will give some players who don't normally start a chance. However, these names are still rather impressive: attacker Lukaku (WBA), midfielders Mertens (PSV) & Defour (Porto) and keeper Mignolet (Sunderland). Expected starting line-up: Mignolet - Gillet, Kompany, Vermaelen, Vertonghen - Fellaini, Defour, Dembele - Mertens, Lukaku, De Bruyne. As you can see, they will start on their strongest in the defence so USA should have a hard time scoring. In front we have striker Lukaku and winger Mertens, who really want to prove themselves, as they aren't normally in the Belgian starting line-up. I expect a good performance by them.

Expected starting line-up for the USA is: Howard - Parkhurst, Gonzalez, Cameron, Beasley - Kljestan, Jones, Zusi - Dempsey, Altidore, Johnson. This is not a very impressive line-up. Apart from players like Howard, Demspey en Altidore there are not much interesting players.

Belgium will want a decent result to boost their morale for the important game against Serbia next friday and some players like Lukaku and Mertens will want to prove that they should be in the Belgian starting line-up. I expect Lukaku to score tonight. There is only one thing that bothers me. The next game is very important, so some players will play carefully to avoid injuries. Coach Wilmots also said that he would like to substitute at least 6 times, so we don't know how the line-up will change during the match. Still, I believe that Belgium should win this one against a not very impressive USA team. If they score first, they won't give it away.

Pick: USA - Belgium 2 @ 2.30