Stadium: Ariake Arena, Tokyo.
The Canadian team has great players, strong in the attack and serve, but the performance of their Russian counterpart are better and more versatile. Dmitry Volkov scores a lot more and serves better than any of the Canadian players who can't really compete with him.
Canada form
The Japanese team has been testing the ability of blocking of the rest of the teams in this tournament. If you are wondering how a team should block at the Olympics, you must check out how the Russians played against Japan.
The Canadians outplayed Japan in terms of blocking. In four games, however, they blocked the Japanese only six times, while the Italians did so15 times and the Poles 12, but this was achieved in three games.
The Canadians have achieved an average of one and a half blocks per game against the Japanese. In the games against Poland and Italy, this statistic is much lower with a block per game.
I think the Canadians will play against Russia the same way they did against the Poles and Italians, but still, we should consider using the same odds as the ones against the Japanese team, which are 1.5.
The best Canadian forwards are Hoag and Perrin. In the match against the Italians and the Iranians, these players performed brilliantly, but against the Japanese and Poles, they couldn't even score 10 points.
Russia form
As it was said before, the Russian players have an average of about three blocks per set. Obviously, they are better than the Canadians, and the bookmakers know this and do not offer a negative handicap for the Russian team. No matter the odds against them, they will still get through. Bookmakers offer to bet on the total of 17.5 points for the upcoming game
If the Russians stick to their plan against the Canadians, they'll make about 9 blocks after three games and about 12 after four. It remains to be seen how many games we'll see on Tuesday.
By the way, Maksim Mikhailov only once got an individual total of 15.5 in Tokyo, and that happened in the first round. After the game with Argentina, Maksim did not score over 15 points in three games.
On the other hand, Dmitry Volkov scored 15.5 in three games against Argentina, USA and Brazil. He has never scored fewer than 10 points in Tokyo.
Expet betting tips
In the last round of the group stage, the Canadians lost against Poland 3-0, but it was considered a friendly match because that result was not significant at all. An odd thing is that whenever I predict that two teams haven’t played a three-set match in a long time, they immediately do, as It happened in the match between USA and Argentina.
If there will be three sets, Mikhailov probably won't score over 16.5 points. He won't be able to do it even if the match extends to four sets. On the other hand, Volkov can score over 13.5 in three sets thanks to his serving and blocking techniques. The Brazilians will have to deal with that later on. He has also beaten Hoag in the League of Nations with a score of 18 vs 13.
The same prediction applies to the number of blocks, which are most like to be no more than 17.5 in three sets. The only way the match extends to four sets is if both teams give their maximum, which, the Russians have not done in their last two games. That's why I should recommend betting on the following:
- Dmitry Volkov TO (13.5) for 1.85;
- Russia to win for 1.056;
- Total over 146.5 for 1.90.
Other predictions
