Brazil World Cup 214 - England face their destiny with Uruguay

Looking back on yesterday I was not surprised to see the demise of Spain. Last week I wrote about the fact I didn't feel Spain would be interested this time around or indeed get out of the group and so it proved. They were not a patch of the team that won the last World Cup or the Euro Championships. Chile will now play Holland to see who wins the Group, that should be a very interesting game as the team finishing second in this Group could face Brazil in the round of 16.

Equally unimpressive were Brazil against Mexico. They very much seem to be a 1 man team and if I was part of the Brazil setup I would be very worried about playing Chile next! The dutch did their best to throw away a perfect start against Australia but ultimately class told against the lowest ranked team in the competition to walk away with a slim victory.

For me Germany are the stand out team so far, Argentina have yet to kick into gear and Chile have been superb. Also I suggested recently that Ronaldo wasn't 100% fit and so it proved yesterday when he limped out of training and could be missing for the rest of the tournament, that being the case I think that cements Portugals failure at this tournament.

Today sees England take on Uruguay, so much has been said about Rooney this week, will he won't he play. If he plays behind Sturridge I think we will win, Suarez seems to be a certain starter although there have to be questions over his fitness as well. Diego Costa and Ronaldo both came here with injury doubts and neither player has been at the races, the same I think will be said of Suarez after tonights game. Its desperation time for Uruguay knowing that defeat will pretty much end their tournament.

I take England (11/10) to win this one and will also take a punt on 2-0 (17/2). England are not big scorers in World Cup games so can't see the margin being any bigger, however they are full of confidence despite the set back to Italy.

In the early game Columbia play Ivory Coast, the African nations have been poor during this World Cup shown again last night my Croatians demolition of  Cameroon. The South American teams seem to be very strong, as such I can only see one result from this game and that is a Columbia win (23/10).

In the late game Japan play Greece. Greece were very poor against Columbia and I cannot see that changing against Japan. Japan despite losing to Ivory Coast did put up a good show and I can see this ending in a scoring draw.

One last thing! You know things are bad for the Spain Manager when you see that last night he came out of the stadium to board the bus and tried to get onto the Chile bus! How times change!!!!!

Good luck with your betting today.

Brazil World Cup 2014 - Group H kickoff

Just a quick post today. Yesterday didn't go to plan with both African sides failing to win but Germany pulled off a great win against Portugal and look good for a long run in the tournament. Nigeria were very poor as Iran did a great job in keeping them out with very few scares during the game. I didn't see the USA game but it seems I have under estimated the USA team! Today sees the start of Group H, I expect like most people to see Belgium beat Algeria and Russia be too strong for South Korea. We also have Brazil playing Mexico. Brazil did ok last week against Croatia and expect them to be improved tonight against Mexico. I expect Neymar to score again as he is the talisman of the team. So I will go with Belgium,Brazil and Russia no surprise there! As seems to be the trend for strikers to score I will go with Lukaku and Neymar to score first for their respective countries. Good luck tonight!

Brazil World Cup - Group F and Group G review

Last night Argentina kicked off their tournament with a 2-1 win over Bosnia. I went with Aguero to score first but the master Messi landed to first scorer odds! Yet again another front line goal scorer bagging the goal for the country! I can;t complain as I had Benzema to score first for France and then bet again doubling my stake on Benzema to score again but had the wait for the third goal in Frances 3-0 win as the second goal was rightly judged as being an own goal! Celebration turned to concern until the frenchman put things right with a great shot later in the second half. 

Tonight Germany take on Ronaldo (sorry Portugal). Portugal are only at these finals because Ronaldo dismantled Sweden in the play offs so they cannot be considered true champion material. They were in Spains qualification group but as we saw Spain are not the force they once were. 

Germany on the other hand come here with a strong shout as they always seem to at the world cup! The German team seem to have been keeping themselves to themselves and will know what to do against Portugal tonight. Portugal haven't beaten Germany since the 2000 Euro Championships and since then they have lost 3 times the most recent being in the 2012 Euros with Germany winning 1-0. 

I cannot see any way that Germany will lose this, I don't expect Ronaldo to be fully fit despite news reports today that he is and will go with Germany at 19/20 to win this one. 

Next up Iran play Nigeria. Nigeria won their qualification group with 12 points the next team had 7 as they won 3 and drew 3 games and then beat Ethiopia 4-1 in a play off. Iran qualified top of their group ahead of South Korea so could be considered one of the stronger sides from The Asia groups. However so far Australia and Japan have both lost. From the African continent we have seen Ivory Coast win and Cameroon lose. I go with Nigeria to win this one as well by a couple of goals. 

Finally Ghana face USA. 4 years ago like a lot of teams before and after them Ghana were cheated by Luis Suarez. His handball stopped a certain goal and the resulting penalty was missed. Its all history now but shows how Ghana have come on as a team over the years. Had they won they would have been the first African side to make the semi finals. Now the last time that nearly happened was in 1990 when Cameroon lost to England, and since then Cameroon have been going in the wrong direction. 

At the start of the tournament I backed USA to score the least number of goals, firstly because I don't think they are in the same class as the rest of the teams in their group (Germany and Portugal being the others) and secondly they were a huge 12/1!  

I'm therefore a fan of Ghana and hope they will repay my faith in them tonight! 

Now then..... 188Bet tell me if I open an account with them and bet a treble if 2 win they will refund my stake with a free bet! Now I see this as a good way to combine my selections today so will be doing exactly that!

Good luck with your selections today.m

Brazil World Cup - The Wonders of in play betting

It would seem now that the Swiss have come from behind we should look at the world that is in play betting. The most amazing fact at this world cup so far is this.

In 5 games the team scoring first have gone on to lose the game. In the Swiss game the minute Ecuador scored Switzerland were 9/2 to win the game having started the game at 7/5. I took this price and am glad I did however at half time Ray Winston (Bet365) was offering me 11/2 on the Swiss.

Brazil, Holland, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast and Switzerland have all conceded first but won their game.

Therefore in 71% of games where both teams have scored the team conceding first has won, this could be a good indicator for in play betting followers.

2 games have finished to nil so far so are not included in these stats.

Of the 9 games 8 have finished with over 2.5 goals, this is another interesting fact and shows that bettering over 2.5 goals is a useful bet in this tournament so far. I think the second round of games will be the same but the 3rd round of games could be a bit more cagey.

Games won by the team conceding first when both teams score in the game.

Brazil World Cup - Group E first games

Well yesterday was not the best day for my bets with my first 3 bets going down. However I managed to recover the loses with a double bet on Ivory Coast leaving me up 6 points on the day. Not great but still in positive territory.

My view on Uruguay was simply they are overrated, they struggled to get through their qualification Group and had to go via the play offs and I didn't really see anything in the game to suggest their high FIFA ranking!

Costa Rica looked good, Joel Campbell looked very good! He is on Arsenals books although out on loan last season, will be interesting to see if he can capitalise on this game and make a name for himself at this tournament.

Following the failure of Uruguay you might have thought Group D would be wide open, little did we know Pirlo was still the master and the young English are still a bit raw. I think England are 2 world class players short and the future is bright but we need to be looking at today, and today we are not good enough. Don't get me wrong, watching Sterling and Sturridge running at the defence was great to see and must be allowed to continue. Rooney needs to be playing in the centre or not at all, playing him wide is not his game and never has been! I expect England to beat and therefore knock out Uruguay next week then it will all depend on how Costa Rica do against Italy so we can work out the permutations for the final game.

So to todays fixtures.

The first thing to note is if we purely look at qualification form most games have gone to form. Eg Uruguay might be considered a surprise to lose to Costa Rica but Uruguay came through the playoffs so are efectively the worst South American side in the tournament whereas Costa Rica finished second in the CONCACAF. It must be said the South American group is stronger but as we saw on a one game playoff anything can happen! So bearing this in mind we have Switzerland v Ecuador. England played a friendly against Ecador recently at Wembley and drew 2 each. So they can score goals but they also concede.

Switzerland didn't lose a game during qualification winning 7 drawing 3. They are the top seeds in this group so should really come out on top.

The bookies make Switzerland 6/4 fav to win with Ecuador at 21/10 i can't look further than Switzerland and consider 6/4 to be a big price. Uruguay showed yesterday that South American sides can lose and this will happen to Ecuador today.

Next up is France and Honduras, some making France the dark horses of the tournament. Honduras drew 0-0 recently in Miami against England in a game stopped for an Electrical storm, I don''t see Honduras as a threat to France however France at 1/3 are a bit too short for me to bet on. I have noticed that a lot of the main strikers are scoring for their countries in the opening games. Neymar, Van Persie, Cavani, Balotelli, Sturridge, Sanchez to name a few! Benzema is 11/4 to score first and as short as 8/11 to score any time! He played really well recently in the 8-0 win over Jamaica so I will back him to score first at 11/4.

Finally tonight we have my pick for winners, Argentina. Playing Bosnia who are appearing in the finals for the first time. The game again is set up to be a one sided affair with Argentina currently 4/11 to win the game! Once again this is too short so I will probably look at some other markets during the day and see how the other bets fair before making a punt.

Hopefully we will see some more great action and goals today!

Brazil World Cup 2014 - Group C and Group D kickoff

Today we will see the entrance of England into the World Cup! They have only won 2 or their previous 6 opening World Cup matches so hopes are high but reality could soon set in! Last night we saw the Spanish get taken apart but a fantastic Dutch performance, I always felt that the Dutch might win but not by that margin. However first game up today is the first game from Group C - Columbia v Greece. With Chile winning a tighter encounter than the score line suggests against Australia (3-1) the South American teams have started this tournament well. I expect Columbia to carry on that trend today against a reasonable but not electrifying Greece side. Columbia are odds on 10/11 to win the game so I will take a chance on 10/3 for the draw at half time and Columbia to win the game. Following that game we have the opening fixture from Group D Uruguay v Costa Rica here again Uruguay are pretty unbackable at 9/20 to win the game so I expect Uruguay to come out flying and be winning at half time and full time at 21/20. Then the big one! England against Italy, so much has already been written about this game but the stats are the stats! England 2 wins from 6 opening fixtures. In 2010 - 0-0 Algeria, 2006 - 1-0 Paraguay, 2002 - 1-1 Sweden, 1998 - 2-0 Tunisia, 1990 - 1-1 Rep of Ireland, 1986 - 0-1 Portugal So we can't beat European sides in opening games! However I do believe this England side have the ability to win the game the question is will Roy allow them to express themselves and go for it or will he play a system not to lose the game. I'm not sure exactly what I will bet on as I will wait for the teams to be announce (for me the key is whether Wellbeck or Stirling plays) however I think it will be a low scoring game, so I can see 0-0 1-0 or 1-1, I don't think England will lose. Good luck with your bets today, if you want to share them in the comments please do.

Spain v Holland!

What a great game to start the first full day of action. A repeat of the last world cup final - its the first time that has happened folks!

For me I think Spain are on the decline and I don't think they will win the cup this time around, indeed I have doubts that they will get out of the group! Chile are very strong and if Holland can get something from tonights game it could spell the start of the end for Spain.

They have some great attacking options but then so do the Dutch!

So what will i bet on tonight?

I really don't think Spain will win but this could end 0-0. So I'm going to bet 5pts on Holland at 19/4 and 10pts on Holland and the draw at 21/20.

Enjoy the game!