You don't often see this much excitement for the third-place game at a soccer tournament. But the host nation will be there, along with 60,000 supporters, when the United States meet Colombia this Saturday (8 PM ET, FX) in Glendale to decide third place at the Copa America Centenario. While both sides are coming off disappointing losses in the semi-finals, the USMNT will have home-field advantage and plenty of motivation on their side.
 

Brace Yourselves

Reaching the semi-finals at the Centenario was an impressive accomplishment, but the US was licking their wounds Tuesday night after losing 0-4 to Argentina (–220). Gonzalo Higuain had the brace for La Albiceleste, and Lionel Messi scored his fifth goal of the tournament on a gorgeous free kick, as the Americans were held without a shot for the entire match. Messi is now Argentina's all-time top scorer with 55 goals, one more than Gabriel Batistuta.

Colombia was hoping for a bit more than the semifinals this year. The 2001 Copa America winners had a tough task in Wednesday's match with the reigning champions from Chile; the Cafeteros were +210 underdogs going into the game, up from +195 earlier in the week. Chile struck immediately for a pair of goals in the first 11 minutes, then waited for over two hours, as halftime was extended by a rain delay, before securing the 2-0 victory. La Roja will square off with Argentina in Sunday's final (8 PM ET, FS1) at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.
 

We Meet Again

Saturday's third-place game will be of extra interest to bettors, since it involves the same two teams who opened this tournament back on June 3 in Santa Clara. The USMNT and Colombia were both in Group A, and it was Colombia (+180) winning 2-0 on goals by Cristian Zapata and James Rodriguez. Colombia is a -140 favorite for the rematch at press time with the USMNT sporting +105 odds.

The US may have gotten spanked by Argentina in the semifinals, but they also had three players suspended for that match: Jermaine Jones, Bobby Wood and Alejandro Bedoya. All three were critical to the USMNT's success at the Centenario, and all three will be available on Saturday. Colombia, meanwhile, failed to score in both their Knockout Stage matches. Getting drenched at Solider Field won't make their loss to Chile any easier to swallow. Nor will traveling to Arizona for the third-place game, against an American squad that's had an extra day to prepare.

 


*Odds as of June 23, 2016