After sweeping through the World Cup with relative ease, the United States is once again going to be expected to run the table at the Summer Olympics as well. Their first offering of the tournament comes on Wednesday night in Belo Horizonte against New Zealand, a team which is going to be hard-pressed just to qualify for the knockout rounds out of Group G.
Soccer Odds at BookMaker.eu
United States -600
New Zealand +1100
Draw +550
Over/Under 2.5 (over -175)
ODDS ANALYSIS
The United States has to be the big time favorite in this match. The Americans are -600 chalks to ultimately win this match and get the three points, and they're giving two goals on the Asian Handicap.
New Zealand though, is a longshot to score a goal in this one. That's why the total has been booked at 2.5, though the vig on the over at -175 suggests that a 3-0 USA victory is the most likely result.
ROSTER ANALYSIS
The woman to really watch out for in the New Zealand lineup is Hannah Wilkinson. She has 23 goals for her country in just 74 appearances, and at 24 years old, she's definitely one of the up and coming stars for this country. She went to college in the United States at the University of Tennessee, so many of the Americans are going to be very familiar playing against her.
The usual suspects are in place for the Stars and Stripes. Coach Jill Ellis will be counting on Hope Solo in the pipes as usual, while Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd will be the most dangerous attacking options for the club. Megan Rapinoe is back from her ACL injury and has been called up to the squad, and she could make a big difference in this tournament. Christen Press will likely start up front alongside Morgan, while Tobin Heath will join Lloyd, Rapinoe and likely Lindsey Horan in the midfield. Becky Sauerbrunn, Ali Krieger and Kelley O'Hara will be three of the four defenders, though the fourth choice for Ellis will be interesting between Julie Johnston and Meghan Klingenberg.
LIVE BETTING
The United States is 14-1-0 thus far this year, and it has posted shutouts in five of its last six matches and 13 of the 15 in 2016. In Olympic qualifying, the Stars and Stripes outscored their opponents by a 23-0 margin.
New Zealand hasn't had results anywhere near as good. The team has just two wins this year, one over Portugal on the road and one against Papua New Guinea which ultimately put it in the Olympics. Still, we've see the Football Ferns put up good fights in a 1-0 loss to Brazil and a 1-1 draw in Melbourne against Australia.
QUICK PICK
This New Zealand team is stronger than some might think, but that doesn't mean the Americans can't overwhelm them. We might not see that resounding 5-0 result that many are going to be hoping to see wearing red, white and blue, but we think a 2-0 result is just about right, especially considering the fact that the Americans don't typically press all that hard to find the back of the net and prefer defensive tactics.
The idea of New Zealand scoring on the USA though, is preposterous.
Olympics Odds: United States 2, New Zealand 0
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