The world cup starts today. Always an historic occasion. Hosts South Africa take on Mexico which isn’t exactly the most glamorous of fixtures imaginable. Traditionally, the hosts tend to do well on home soil but i’ve a feeling South Africa will break with tradition.
No doubt other African nations will be backed by neutrals too, considering there aren’t that many non-african ‘neutrals’ in South Africa. Having watched the African Nations Cup take place earlier in the year though, i was disgusted by the standard of football. It was shocking.
There were rumors of fixed matches and corruption and i hope that was indeed the case because the vast majority of matches i sat through were rubbish. I fear for African sides if they play like they did in the African Nations. They’ll be embarrassed in South Africa.
photo credit: murilografics.com
My favorites for the world cup this year are Argentina & Spain. Argentina have the players but narrowly just made it in to the world cup, so they don’t have the form. Still, form matters little when the spotlight is on.
Spain are European Champions and look like a side that mean business. They’re favorites to win and it’s hard to see anyone beating them. Brazil should stroll through the latter stages but i don’t think they have enough steel to go all the way. They can be bullied.
Ferdinand is a big loss for England and they should have no problems finishing top of their group but i just don’t think they have enough winners there to go all the way. Terry & Rooney are the only players with a never say die attitude. They’re used to winning. Individually England have a great bunch of players but they consistently under perform when it matters.
The bet of the tournament is to lay England after they qualify for the knock out stages at which stage they’ll be one of the favorites to win, heavily backed by themselves. It’s a much safer bet than predicting an outright winner 😉