Alas the games are nearing an end. London 2012 has been a fantastic Olympics and the British should be proud to have put on such a pleasant spectacle in the light of such current global economic woes.
What are the top sportsbooks offering up in terms of sports
betting value for today's Olympic action? Will USA be able to snatch
overall victory of the games from China? It pains me to say the Olympics
are coming to an end, but
indeed that is the case. There's still more than enough betting
opportunities
out there to exploit.This is what you need to be watching today.
Men's Basketball
The USA women secured their berth into the finals yesterday
and now it's the men's turn to follow suit. Can they do it?
Let's get the first semi-final out of the way. It's
Spain versus Russia and the Spaniards are favored by 4.5 points by oddsmakers
at the moment. This one's going to be close, considering Spain hasn't been
tearing through the competition like some thought they might.
As for Russia, they have Andrei Kirilenko playing lights out
right now and he'll try to carry the team on his back. The Russians are a
feisty bunch, but it's going to be hard for them to contend with Spain's size.
The Americans get a rematch against Argentina, whom they ran
away from during the group stages. This one should be closer, considering Manu
Ginobili, Luis Scola and the rest of the Argentinians have a ton of
international experience and know how to succeed in this kind of setting.
Argentina will try and make this game ugly by any means
possible, but they had the same strategy in the group game and the USA simply
had too much firepower in the second half. What will change here in the
semi-finals?
Men's Soccer
With the gold medal match looming on Saturday, the bronze
will be handed out today. Japan takes on South Korea and there's not much
separating these countries in the soccer odds.
The Japanese looked unstoppable throughout the group stages
but they ran out of gas in the semi-finals against Mexico.
As for the Koreans, they also went unbeaten in their group,
before getting past Great Britain in penalties in the quarter-finals. Their run
came to an end in the semis though as Brazil proved way too powerful.
A medal, of any color, would be a huge coup for either
country here, so you know tension will be high. If we had to guess, it'll be
Japan (+156) that emerges victorious and gets the bronze.
Soccer fan's will also be lifted by the start of the English Premier League on August 18th especially considering Olympic play can be a bit short of the world's best players.
Track & Field
Quite a few finals today. For the women, they have the
hammer throw, 1500 meters, 5000 meters, and 4x100 meter relay.
The relay should be fun to watch, with the United States
battling it out with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago for that gold medal.
On the men's side, it's qualification for the 4x100 meter
relay and then finals for the pole vault and 4x400 meter relay. Brad Walker is
the only American in the 14-player field in the pole vault.
Volleyball
In the men's semi-finals, Brazil takes on Italy and Russia
must get past Bulgaria. The Russians are hugely favored (-450) in their encounter with the surprising
Bulgarians, while Brazil (-260) is expected to move on over the Italians.