A pair of teams seeking their first win at the Gold Cup will face each other in Group D action on Saturday when Grenada take on Qatar.

The Spice Boys dropped their opener 4-0 to Honduras, while Qatar conceded a late penalty to Panama in a 3-3 draw.

Match preview

Ahead of this competition, Grenada manager Michael Findlay said that his players would be looking for respect within the CONCACAF region, but after a 4-0 defeat in their opening match, that may be hard to come by.

Statistically speaking, the score may not have been a clear indication of the game as Grenada fired only one less shot on target than the Hondurans, although they never really looked comfortable.

Findlay will hope that his side got those jitters out of their system by now as they seek their first-ever result at the Gold Cup, having now lost all seven of their matches played at this tournament, scoring only one goal over that span.

With only two players on their Gold Cup roster over the age of 30, they are short on experience and it showed in their passing, which was clicking at an accuracy of only 75% in their first game.

This tournament was supposed to serve as an indicator for where this program is at and how well this team is progressing, and lately, it seems that they still have a long way to go, having now lost three consecutive fixtures, going scoreless in two of those games.

The opening match at this competition for Qatar was quite the encounter for footballing fans who love wide-open play, although their manager Felix Sanchez was probably not too pleased with the result.

The Maroon had the lead versus the Panamanians three times, but they failed to hang on and ended up with a draw in what was probably the most exciting game to watch at the Gold Cup so far.

The 2022 World Cup hosts were uncharacteristically sloppy defensively, allowing three goals for the first time in a competitive match since October 2018 and allowing six shots on target, the most they have given up since conceding 12 shots on goal to Ghana in a 5-1 loss in October of last year.

When you look at those statistics, it seems pretty clear what needs improving in their second match, and they will be happy to be facing a team in Grenada who have only scored multiple goals once in their previous nine games.

While they were disappointed to not come away with three points in their first match, Qatar made a statement that they are a team to be feared and who deserve to be playing at the World Cup next year.

Team News

Grenada goalkeeper Reice Charles-Cook had a rough opening to this tournament, as the English-born keeper, who began his senior career at Arsenal, conceded on all four shots that he faced against Honduras.

His brother Regan Charles-Cook made his international debut for the Spice Boys as the Ross County midfielder played 72 minutes on the wing, while Dejon Noel-Williams played in the final half-hour against Honduras, replacing their top goalscorer Jamal Charles.

Defender Omar Beckles started his first match in central defence since the 2019 CONCACAF Nations League, playing alongside their most experienced defender at this tournament in Aaron Pierre, who has over a dozen caps for his country.

Qatar striker Almoez Ali scored his second goal in as many matches for his country, moving into fifth place all-time alongside Mansour Muftah with 31 international goals.

Akram Afif moved into a tie with Sayed Ali Bechir for eighth all-time in international goals, firing home his 20th for his country on Tuesday, while goalkeeper Meshaal Barsham made his second successive start, stopping three of the six shots that he faced.

Sanchez made one change to the Qatar back five versus Panama playing Boualem Khoukhi in central defence in place of Tarek Salman, while midfielder Abdullah Al-Ahrak came on as a second-half substitute in their opener, after playing over an hour in their final tuneup match against El Salvador.

Grenada possible starting lineup:
Belfon; Sterling, Paul, Pierre, Ettienne; Charles-Cook, Norburn, Paterson, Frank; Lewis, Charles

Qatar possible starting lineup:
Barsham; Ro-Ro, Al-Rawi, Salman, Hassan, Ahmed; Al-Ahrak, Boudiaf, Hatem; Ali, Afif

We say: Grenada 0-3 Qatar

Grenada are still young and are learning what it takes to compete on this stage, having conceded in four of their last five fixtures.

Playing a side as offensively inept as Grenada have been lately could be just what Qatar need to regain their confidence defensively, and when you combine that with an attack who have scored in every one of their last 11 competitive games, it could be a long night for the small Caribbean nation.

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