Jamaica vs Suriname

Jamaica and Suriname will lock horns at the Exploria Stadium in their 2021 CONCACAF GOLD CUP curtain-raiser.

Jamaica head into the tournament in the midst of a rough patch, picking up just one win in five warm-up fixtures for the 2021 Gold Cup (D1, L3). Additionally, except for a 2-1 win over Saudi Arabia in an international friendly, Jamaica scored under 1.5 goals in the remaining four matches during that five-game sequence. With that said, going back to 1996, the ‘Reggae Boyz’ have won each of their four encounters against Suriname, with three of those triumphs yielding the identical 1-0 scoreline. To keep that run going, Jamaica will likely have to keep a clean sheet, which has been the case only once in their previous seven outings. However, seven of their last eight victories have seen them register a shutout.

On the other hand, a 4-0 away thrashing to Canada in a World Cup qualifier last time out brought Suriname’s five-game winning streak to a halt. It was also only the second time in their previous 14 international games that Suriname failed to get on the scoresheet. Indeed, Dean Gorre’s men averaged 4.2 goals per match during the abovementioned five-fixture winning sequence, scoring 2+ first-half goals three times in the process. Since being held to a 2-2 draw to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in October 2019, none of Suriname’s subsequent seven matches have ended level (W5, L2), with six of the games won/lost in that stretch seeing the victor keep a clean sheet.