USA vs Latvia Prediction: Expect a Total Over

On May 13, 2022, the USA team will face Latvia in the first match of the Ice Hockey World Championship in Tampere.

The USA team has been an enigma in all recent major competitions, as it has been a long time since they have brought a great squad to a major tournament. Nevertheless, the 2021 World Cup did not prevent them from winning the bronze medal with some excellent and entertaining hockey. And at the Olympics 2022, they looked good and were likely to advance far in the tournament if they had not relaxed at the end of the quarterfinal game against the Slovaks.

The Latvian team had a poor showing at the 2021 World Cup in Riga when they failed to qualify from the group, even though they had every reason to do so. In the last game, a draw against Germany was enough to put both teams comfortably clear of the play-offs for the eventual champions, the Canadians. As a result, another Canadian, Bob Hartley, finished his job with the Latvians, while Harijs Vitolins, who had already served in the 2022 Olympic Games, where the Latvians had a poor showing, losing all four games in the tournament and leaving in the round of 16.

The USA, the bronze medallists from last year's World Cup, also had a modest squad and will now play without any stars, which is unlikely to affect their results. This especially concerns their first World Cup 2022 clash with the Latvians, who are in poor form, having lost their last four official matches in a row, each time in regulation time. The Americans are the favorites to win this match-up, with a handicap (-1.5) for 2.06.

In their previous four head-to-head encounters, the teams have combined to score 30 goals (7.50 on average per game. And now we can look forward to a goal-rich meeting, as the World Cup is just beginning, and the opponents have nothing to lose, so a total over 5.5 for 2.35.

The USA team will now play with a far from the optimal line-up, but the system will remain the same, regardless of the level of the performers. If you look at the last game of the rivals, the Americans scored against the Latvians in the World Cup 2021 already in the second minute. Something similar can be expected now. With this in mind, we may consider a bet on the USA scoring first and win in regulation time for 2.

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