Olympic Soccer Showdown: Morocco vs Spain Preview and Best Bets
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00:00We're getting ready for the gold medal at the Olympics for soccer, and now we're getting
00:08really toward the end of the line to find out who's going to get there, and we need
00:11some help doing it.
00:12So Michael DiCorsi joins us courtesy of Sporting News to break it all down.
00:16Mike, we've got some matches coming up.
00:18In fact, there's one straight ahead of us here at noon Eastern, so I don't want to waste
00:23much time saying hi and giving you a high five.
00:25Let's get right to it.
00:26Morocco takes on Spain.
00:28It's supposed to be a very highly contested match, I would assume today, based on the
00:33odds.
00:34So let's take a look at those.
00:35Morocco is plus 240, so they are the dog.
00:38Spain is the favorite.
00:39They're plus 110, but as you can see there, a tie is plus 240 as well.
00:43So naturally, this could go any of three directions, at least from looking at the odds.
00:48That's my interpretation of it.
00:49How about yours?
00:50Yeah.
00:52The challenge in evaluating Olympic soccer is that these teams are really not together
00:58for very long.
01:00They might have a few friendlies on the way in, and in the case of Spain, for instance,
01:05a couple of their players wouldn't have been available for those exhibitions because they
01:12were on the Euro 2024 squad that they didn't get a lot of playing time, but they were on
01:18the Euro squad that won the championship, Lopez and Baena.
01:22And so we don't really know, even after, what, three, four games, exactly how great these
01:28teams are.
01:29I think if you went on impression and watching them play, you'd feel pretty strong about
01:35Morocco.
01:36Morocco has been fabulous at taking out Argentina back in the contested opener that became so
01:43controversial and then the obliteration of the United States for nothing in the quarterfinals.
01:49You'd be really excited about it.
01:50That plus the fact that they probably have the most accomplished player in the tournament
01:55in Ashraf Hakimi.
01:57You could say Alexander Lacazette from France, but maybe the most accomplished younger player.
02:03Hakimi is an overage player in this competition.
02:06Everybody's supposed to be 23 or younger, except for three players.
02:11Lacazette is toward the end of his career.
02:14Hakimi is in the prime of his, and he's a fabulous right back.
02:17And he was phenomenal against the United States on Friday.
02:21So for me, I feel like a little bit of the upset here is in order.
02:27Spain has the brand recognition, but Morocco has a really tightly orchestrated team.
02:34They were so well coached against the United States.
02:37Their moves were beautiful.
02:39Hakimi is as good as there is at his position.
02:42I like what I see from them, but again, it's a tough thing to grade teams that have only
02:50really been together for four or five games.
02:53Yeah, and I think that's fair because again, it's, and again, you look at the odds.
02:58I mean, I think FanDuel has it appropriately priced because of that.
03:00As you mentioned, a lot of the players younger in age than you would normally see when the
03:05countries would be playing against each other in a tournament.
03:08Let's take a look real quick at any time goal score.
03:10You illustrated a couple of names there.
03:12I was wondering if you like any others.
03:14Sergio Camelo is the favorite to score a goal today at plus 200.
03:19Abel Ruiz at plus 210.
03:21And then pretty much, as you can see, Mike, not a ton of value there, like plus 230s,
03:27plus 300s for an anytime goal score.
03:29I mean, usually this is fours, fives.
03:32What am I reading into here by seeing that?
03:35Yeah, I think some of it is that they, that it's such a, it's such a, I hate to use this
03:42term in this phrase, but it's a crapshoot.
03:45You know, you don't want to hit a gambling issue with a gambling cliche, but it kind
03:50of is because it's really hard to gauge who is going to score.
03:55Again, it's not just these, this is a youth competition.
03:58If you were looking at the U-20 World Cup, say, United States just qualified for the
04:04next one with their victory over the weekend and then fell in the championship of the CONCACAF.
04:13Those teams are together.
04:15They play in the qualifying.
04:16They play in advance of the tournament, and then they're in the tournament.
04:19The Olympics is basically put together.
04:21OK, here you go.
04:23You're on the plane to Paris.
04:24And that's really tough to judge.
04:26And that's why it's really hard to know who would get a goal out of this.
04:30I would, I would say that this would be a bad bet for anyone to take.
04:34If you have conviction, do it.
04:36But it's just, there's just no, there's no price value in any of that.
04:40No, a lot of two to ones in a soccer match.
04:43You just don't see that a lot.
04:44And I think that you're probably right.
04:46If you can't price it, don't give anybody great odds.
04:49And I think that's what Spandau is doing.
04:51OK, a little bit of a different story here.
04:53So, Mike, we got the semifinals on the other side.
04:56We got France and Egypt.
04:57I mean, most expect France to dominate and win this one.
05:00Their heavy favorite here at minus 310.
05:02Even a tie is four to one.
05:04Egypt, not expected to be at this stage.
05:06One of the big surprises probably, I would say, on the men's side, plus 750.
05:11Anything to surprise us today?
05:12Any shot here that Egypt comes away with one of the bigger Olympic upsets we've seen?
05:18Yeah, I mean, you're exactly right, Craig.
05:20If, I mean, we've seen upsets at this tournament, excuse me, at this,
05:23these Olympics, I should say, in various sports.
05:26But I would say that if Egypt were to beat France,
05:29even though, as I mentioned before, these are not together teams,
05:33Egypt beating France on France's home soil with Lacazette out there,
05:37et cetera, would be among the bigger upsets of these games.
05:40I'm not going to go into history and all of that.
05:43I'm not sure whether we could go, like I say,
05:45it's as big as Russia beating the Olympic men's,
05:48U.S. men's basketball team at 72 or something like that.
05:51But it would be an enormous upset.
05:55Again, because they're so, it's such a high reward
05:58and all they have to do is nick a goal and stay clean on the defensive side,
06:04you might be able to get a big reward for what is just basically a victory.
06:09But I would say that it would be a stunner if they were able to pull it off.
06:13All right.
06:14And finally, let's hit the three on threes.
06:16Team USA went out with a whimper, to say the least.
06:19Netherlands against Lithuania today at noon.
06:22So that's coming up in about 40 minutes from now.
06:25And right now I see Netherlands as a slight favorite, minus one and a half.
06:30And then we have Latvia taking on France.
06:33And that game will be played later as well.
06:35Latvia actually favored in this one, despite France having the home crowd there.
06:41Again, Mike, I watch a little bit of this.
06:43I know that they're trying to incorporate new sports, new ideas into the Olympics.
06:47I think they've done a good job of it.
06:49How would you define this sport specifically in the Olympics?
06:53And who do you think comes out?
06:55Well, my friend, Fran Priscilla, who is involved with the U.S. effort,
06:59but didn't get enough input, in my opinion, into who should be on the team.
07:03I would say that he compared it to beach volleyball.
07:08And I thought that was a perfect descriptor.
07:10Look for Latvia.
07:12All right.
07:12Latvia, says Mike DiCorsi.
07:14Mike, see you soon.
07:14Thanks again.