Weekend International Soccer Preview - Gold Cup and Euro U-21 Finals

Two big games this weekend.

First at 14:45 EST (20:45 local time) on Saturday June 25, the Euro U-21 final kicks off between Spain and Switzerland.

On paper this is a really close game to call and although Spain have the ability and experience to be installed as nominal favourites, The Swiss have the talent and drive to push them all the way, if not unseat them.  The final sees the tournaments two best teams take each other on and is the best outcome that could have happened

Full tournament coverage can be found here on the UEFA website:

Javi Martinez and Juan Mata will hope to win the Cup for Spain to complete a unique double of World Cup and Euro U-21.  Both were in the Spain squad that triumphed in South America.  Striker Adrian Lopez with five goals is their man attacking threat but their squad ooozes class and quality throughout.

A full profile of their team can be found here.

Switzerland, although not as illustrious on paper, have a dangerous set of attackers in Xherdan Shaqiri (goal scorer at national level) and Admir Mehmedi who has netted three times so far.

After having picked the final lineup (Spain over Belarus and Switzerland over the Czech), I am loathe to push my luck.  However I called Spain to win the whole thing back in October, so I am still stumping for the Iberians.

A close battle awaits.

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Later tomorrow, June 25, at 21:00 EST Mexico takes on USA in the Gold Cup final.

That the two best sides have progressed this far is merely par for the course.  There's a good chance both teams felt they were going to have a repeat of their 2009 Gold Cup final again.  And so it is.

Mexico should beat the US comfortably, despite the game being played in California.  However, USA are wily, resilient and robust, able to cause no end of problems for the more talented Mexicans.

I predict a 3-1 win with Javi Hernandez keeping up his rich vein of form with a goal and an assist.

I picked all three semi-final goal scorers (Hernandez, De Nigris and Dempsey) but can only count on one of them for the final.

Full tournament coverage can be found here.