USA vs Slovakia: The USA to clinch a semi-final place

The Americans have beaten the Slovaks in their last three games at the Olympics by a combined score of 14-3. Will Craig Ramsay's men be able to avoid another defeat? We predict that the USA will win comfortably again!

The USA are the real discovery of the Olympic group stage. Four years ago, the team brought a rather modest name team to South Korea, which was quickly eliminated from the tournament and had no memory of it. Now the Americans have assembled a young, aggressive, and hungry for wins team that tore apart all their opponents in the group stage of the 2022 Olympics, showing a very sharp and intense game. In their first meeting, the Americans crushed the Chinese 8-2, defeated Canada 4-2, and returned with a 3-1 win over Germany. The Americans' three straight wins ensured the first place in Group A and straight into the tournament's quarterfinals.

In the group stage of the Beijing Olympics, the Slovak national team made a mixed impression. Craig Ramsay's men lost hopelessly in their opening two games to Finland and Sweden 1-6 and 1-4. However, we're all used to the Slovaks being notoriously unstoppable, and it was all too easy for the group favorites. However, Slovakia have gradually started to find their feet, first defeating Latvia 5-2, and then in the qualification round they also beat the 2018 Olimpic finalists Germany 4-0. And so the Slovaks made it through to the quarterfinals of the tournament, although there were no preconditions.

The Slovakian national team improves from match to match at the Beijing Olympics. Still, they ran into the posh Americans in the quarterfinals, who had a flawless group stage of the tournament. Against the States, things have been too bad for the Slovaks of late. Four years earlier at the 2018 Olympics, they had lost to the USA twice, 1-2 and 1-5, with no NHL players already in the mix. The Americans were also stronger at the last World Cup, 6-1. Now we are betting on the victory of the USA team with a handicap (-1.5) for 2.06.

At the group stage of the Olympics, the US team played as if it did not care at all about the result. All the action was directed towards attacking, which did not prevent them from gaining three straight victories, each time during regular time. The USA now face a quarterfinal appearance at the 2022 Olympics, but their style of play is unlikely to change with the status quo. What's more, the Slovak national team has also been remarkably productive in the tournament, with 24 goals (6.00 goals per game on average) scored in their four games so far. With this in mind, Total Over 5.5 pucks for 1.85 should be a good bet.

As we have already mentioned, the USA national team does not care about the level of their opponent and the stage of the tournament. They always attack and dominate. There's no doubt that this time, they'll do the same thing, from the very first minutes, to gain an advantage, forcing the Slovakian team to open up. In the opening stages of the encounter, we can rightfully expect the teams to be active and make a difference. In such a situation, it is worth looking at a bet on Total Over 0.5 goals at the end of the 10th minute for 1.65.