2024 Paris Olympics Odds, Picks & Predictions: Sunday (7/28)
The Colombia and New Zealand women's soccer teams are each looking to rebound after opening match losses. The Australia women's soccer team could get back into the hunt in their group with a favorable matchup against Zambia. And the French and Dutch women's handball teams meet in what should be a high-scoring affair.
Here are the three best bets for July 28 at the Paris Olympics.
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Sunday’s Best Women’s Olympic Bets
(All bets are one unit unless otherwise specified)
Women's Soccer: Colombia vs. New Zealand – Both Teams To Score: Yes (-105)
Colombia and New Zealand enter this match with 0-1 records. However, both teams showed offensive promise against superior opponents in their first matchups. Colombia scored twice against France, the second-ranked team in the world according to FIFA. New Zealand didn't look great on offense against Canada, but they still found the back of the net once.
Colombia will definitely score at least once in this game. While it may be tempting to take them to keep a clean sheet, the price of +105 isn't good enough. For New Zealand to pull off anything against Canada was impressive. In a better matchup, they will get on the board at least once, even if it doesn't happen until they're down 1-0 or 2-0.
Women's Soccer: Australia -2.5 (+140) vs. Zambia
Both Australia and Zambia were blown out by far superior opponents in their first matches. However, Australia have a much higher ceiling at this tournament, and if they want a chance to advance, they need to beat up on Zambia on Sunday.
Zambia enters the tournament as the 64th-ranked team in the world. They played like it against the USA in their opening match, allowing 27 shots while taking just eight. While Australia was outmatched by Germany in their first match, they only gave up four shots on goal. Unfortunately for them, three of those shots found the back of the net. Zambia won't have such accuracy on Sunday, as Australia pulls out the win to get their goal differential back to 0 ahead of their final meeting of the group stage with the USA.
Women's Handball: France vs. Netherlands Over 56.5 Goals (-120)
Perhaps this is a trap from oddsmakers, but this seems too easy. France defeated Hungary 31-28 in their first game of the Olympics while the Netherlands defeated Angola 34-31. You could chalk their scoring success up to weak defensive teams, but their defenses simply weren't very good in their opening games either.
It's surprising to see this number 2.5 goals lower than what the matchup between France and Hungary ended at. Maybe oddsmakers are particularly sharp early in these Olympics. However, in general, when a lesser-known sport has a line like this, it's best to not overthink it and just take the side that seems obvious.
Phil Wood is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Phil, check out his archive and follow him @Phil_Wood_Jr.