England manager Gareth Southgate will be looking for some more tweaks to his side when they host the United States of America national team at Wembley Stadium in London for an international friendly match on Thursday. The two teams have last met at the 2010 World Cup and at that time the USA were able to secure a 1-1 draw in the group stage before advancing to the knockout phase of the tournament. Before that match England had two friendly wins over the USA, while their encounter at the 1950 edition of the World Cup was surprisingly won 1-0 by the Americans.
England face a decisive UEFA Nations League match on Sunday against Croatia, but before that game manager Gareth Southgate will have the chance to test some things out in the friendly against the USA. The last international break was a good one for England, they started it with a goalless draw in Croatia and then secured a historic 3-2 victory in Spain. Raheem Sterling scored twice in that match and Marcus Rashford also got his name on the score sheet. Southgate employed a 4-3-3 formation in that match and it seemed to work just fine, so he is expected to stick to it at least for the next few matches. Wayne Rooney is expected to play the last 10 minutes of the match as England celebrate his international career.
The USA are going through the darkest period in the last decades as they failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, missing the final tournament after seven consecutive qualifications. They played no less than nine friendly matches this year, but only managed to win three of them. It is true that friendly results are not that important, and it is also worth mentioning that the US team lost against strong sides like Colombia and Brazil. In October the Americans got beaten 4-2 by Colombia before snatching a 1-1 draw against Peru, while their latest win was a 1-0 success over neighbors Mexico in September.
Probable line-ups:
England: Pickford - Alexander-Arnold, Keane, Stones, Shaw - Winks, Henderson, Alli - Sancho, Kane, Sterling
USA: Guzan - Yedlin, Carter-Vickers, Miazga, Robinson - Pulisic, Acosta, Trapp, McKennie, Weah - Sargent
My prediction: England to win 1-0, the US team is still "work in progress" and England have a much stronger side.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
England win - 1.28
Draw - 6.00
USA win - 13.00
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