The Official World Cup 2010 Thread

[HattonTheHammer]

4/1 Spain.
5/1 Brazil
6/1 England
7/1 Argentina
11/1 Holland
12/1 Germany
12/1 Italy
28/1 Portugal

Portugal at 28s? I know they had a very poor qualifying campaign but they are worth a tenner with Ronaldo in their side.

Apparently Ronaldo never scored a single goal in the world cup qualifiers

I think Argentina is good money. Messi is gonna light this tournament up.

England at 6s while argies at 7s is a complete joke. Argentinas second 11 could probably beat us on there day

Completely understand why we are so short though. If england win the world cup the bookies in this country stand to lose a small fortune!!

[Master]

Thoes odd do not give much, wonder who Skel/Fenster/Ono have I will put money on them . Holland look the best money bet.

[OumaFan]

The Dutch are gonna win this shit

Their my second team, assuming the US doesn't make it to the finals

[Mark TKO]

4/1 Spain.
5/1 Brazil
6/1 England
7/1 Argentina
11/1 Holland
12/1 Germany
12/1 Italy
28/1 Portugal

Portugal at 28s? I know they had a very poor qualifying campaign but they are worth a tenner with Ronaldo in their side.

Apparently Ronaldo never scored a single goal in the world cup qualifiers

I think Argentina is good money. Messi is gonna light this tournament up.

England at 6s while argies at 7s is a complete joke. Argentinas second 11 could probably beat us on there day

Completely understand why we are so short though. If england win the world cup the bookies in this country stand to lose a small fortune!!

cut the negativity

[El Kabong]

The Dutch are gonna win this shit

Their my second team, assuming the US doesn't make it to the finals

I actually kind of agree with that, I think the Dutch could fly under the radar and win everything. I have a hard time choosing between them and Spain....Ivory Coast is also on my list.


I think the US will do well, if we face Germany in the knockout stage we may have a shot to beat them....sure they have really solid players and more depth than us, but the Confed Cup shows us that on our best day we can beat anybody.

I predict an AWFUL outing by Brazil, Dunga is changing their style and I just think they'll suck which will cause Dunga to be fired and ALL(or a lot of them) Brazilian players to come back home to play in Brazil to remanufacture their original style of play.

I doubt Argentina plays well either, I think Maradona is not a good coach and he's beefed with some of their better players in order to get his way and Messi never has done well for his country, but he could change things this time.

[ono]

4/1 Spain.
5/1 Brazil
6/1 England
7/1 Argentina
11/1 Holland
12/1 Germany
12/1 Italy
28/1 Portugal

Portugal at 28s? I know they had a very poor qualifying campaign but they are worth a tenner with Ronaldo in their side.

Apparently Ronaldo never scored a single goal in the world cup qualifiers

I think Argentina is good money. Messi is gonna light this tournament up.

England at 6s while argies at 7s is a complete joke. Argentinas second 11 could probably beat us on there day

Completely understand why we are so short though. If england win the world cup the bookies in this country stand to lose a small fortune!!

I think you're drastically over-estimating Argentina.

Player for player....

Romero - Hart/Green/James (unsure which one yet, although i'd go for Hart, but i'm biased)

Otamendi - Johnson (Johnson is better)

Demichelis - Ferdinand (Ferdinand)

Samuel - Terry (Close)

Heinze - Cole (Cole..easily)

Gutierriz - Lennon (Lennon..easily)

Mascherano - Barry (Close)

Veron - Lampard (Lampard)

Di Maria - Gerrard (Gerrard)

Messi - Rooney (Messi)

Higuain - Heskey (Higuain)


They may have stronger attacking option in Tevez, Aguero, Milito, but we're stronger everywhere else and Capello is a miles better tactician than Maradona.

[OumaFan]

Samuel Eto'o Cameroon quit threat over Roger Milla criticism - ESPN Soccernet

I don't think there will end up being much too this but for fuck's sake, man up a little.

Looks like a lot of the African teams are having some problems, Essien being out is just awful, I hate Chelsea but I find it hard to dislike him.

And the Ivory Coast hired Sven Goran Erikkson

[OumaFan]

Otamendi is awesome on football manager fwiw.

[superheavyrhun]

England have looked really rather bad in the two warm-up games so far, and as much as I know plenty of people will want them to lose, I'd like them to do well, but don't think they'll get beyond the quarter-finals. They're not sure of their formation, they're gambling on getting Barry into shape, and too many players are recovering from injuries, or in the case of Ledley King, permanently playing through an injury.

As for who will win, I'd love to see someone new get their hands on the trophy, anyone outside the usual suspects. Or Spain if I'm being boring.

[boxingbantz]

England have looked really rather bad in the two warm-up games so far, and as much as I know plenty of people will want them to lose, I'd like them to do well, but don't think they'll get beyond the quarter-finals. They're not sure of their formation, they're gambling on getting Barry into shape, and too many players are recovering from injuries, or in the case of Ledley King, permanently playing through an injury.

As for who will win, I'd love to see someone new get their hands on the trophy, anyone outside the usual suspects. Or Spain if I'm being boring.

This I don't understand as her really isn't that important and there are plenty of players who could perform in the same role. He has been, overall, quite poor this season.

[Fenster]

Thoes odd do not give much, wonder who Skel/Fenster/Ono have I will put money on them . Holland look the best money bet.

Well i've backed Holland and Germany (one either side should my draw work out). Mainly because I wanted a double figure price to start with, the climate should suit europeans and they looked the best options to me.

Englands price is absolutely ridiculous. Should be 20s.

[boxingbantz]

Thoes odd do not give much, wonder who Skel/Fenster/Ono have I will put money on them . Holland look the best money bet.

Well i've backed Holland and Germany (one either side should my draw work out). Mainly because I wanted a double figure price to start with, the climate should suit europeans and they looked the best options to me.

Englands price is absolutely ridiculous. Should be 20s.

It's short for a reason.

If you think about it, hundreds of thousands are gonna bet that England win the World Cup (out of blind faith more than anything) and IF England win it, by some miracle, the bookies would lose an absolute fortune if they were the price they 'should' be.

Holland, Germany, Italy, Portugal are all AT least 11/1. If that's the case, realistically, England would be around the same. The bookies are just covering themselves. It's the same if a lot of people lump a load of money on a horse, the price is always going to get shorter.

[Slice N Dice]

The Dutch are worth a flutter, for sure, although defensively they're vulnerable. Also, if anyone chokes more than England...it's Holland.

Spain are favourites, but I also agree that they won't win it, they done well in the Euro's but I still see them choking.

Germany are depleted, however they have a young team which will be a real force in 2014, with some of the old guard out I feel this will be too soon for them right now.

Obviously I'd love England to do it, however we will HAVE to win a penalty shoot out along the way, every winner in the last 5 world cups apart from '02 has had to win one on the way to the title. Besides, imagine the confidence boost it would give our lads if we finally got that hoodoo out of the way.

Still, when in doubt, always go for Brazil...

[Slice N Dice]

Oh and Argentina are not going to win it, they were woeful in qualifying, good individuals but Maradona has no clue how to get them to play together. There is hope for them in that Brazil had a similar path to World Cup 2002, barely making it, and then once there they just ran away with it. Can't see it happening personally.

As for Portugal, I don't think they will win it, I think they will go out early. However I also hope we don't play them as they have some kind of voodoo curse over us in recent tournaments.

[LukeH]

4/1 Spain.
5/1 Brazil
6/1 England
7/1 Argentina
11/1 Holland
12/1 Germany
12/1 Italy
28/1 Portugal

Portugal at 28s? I know they had a very poor qualifying campaign but they are worth a tenner with Ronaldo in their side.

Didnt Portugal draw with Cape Verde in one of their World Cup warm-ups?

Id love Holland to win it, Robben/Sneijder/Van Der Vaart/ Van Persie would be pretty devastating if there defence could hold up. I think Dirk Kuyt will miss a ridiculous chance and they go out though.

Maradona's hate of Messi will probably mess any chance they have up.
Spain will probably bottle it... but Villa top scorer for me.