2010 World Cup Futures
by Jason Green of Predictem.com
Favorites in South Africa
After a little hiccup in tying two World Cup qualifying games that Argentina should have won, Ecuador and Paraguay, the South American giants are now playing well and have won 2 WC qualifying matches in a row. They and Brazil are both at +500 to win the World Cup in South Africa next summer. Brazil is only 1-0-2 in their last 3 matches, but in those games many of their best players were still playing in the top European leagues. This next summers’ World Cup is only the second one not held in either Europe or South and North America and the Brazilians won the first one in South Korea held back in 2002.
Spain is at +600 to win the World Cup and they are stacked to say the least. It used to be that the Spaniards could not win the big game, but they won the Euro in 2008 held in Austria. They have an awesome attack led by Francisco Torres and they are currently the top ranked team in the world by FIFA. They are cruising in the WC qualifying games and lead their group by a legit margin.
England (+800) has not progressed past the quarterfinals in the past few World Cups, but the world’s 7th ranked team is playing well and they will easily make the WC after beating Croatia, a thorn in their side, in Zagreb back in October of last year. Wayne Rooney and company will be counted on to bring some glory back to England next summer.
The defending WC champion Italy is at +1000 and the world’s 5th ranked team leads their group in qualifying for next summer. The Italians are not the youngest team, but they are still solid and will try to repeat for the first time since Brazil accomplished the feat in 1962.
Germany and Holland are both at +1200 to win next summer and each is cruising in their qualifying groups. Holland may surprise some people, as they did in the Euro by crushing Italy, but there are still concerns on defense. Germany is the 2nd ranked team in the world, but nobody is really talking about them as WC contenders. They reached the quarters in their home country in 2008 and they will not have as much pressure on them in South Africa.
France (+2000) is in a fight just to make the World Cup next summer, as they are currently in 2nd place in their group. Much like Italy time is not on the side of France, as they are one of the older teams that have a good shot to win. They have dropped in the world rankings, as FIFA now has them as 10th.
Portugal (+2500) made the semifinals in Germany in 2008, ranked 11th in the world, and have world class striker Cristiano Ronaldo, but they are in danger of even making it to next summer, as they are currently in 3rd place in their qualifying group.
Here are the current odds at Bodog for the top 20 teams to win the World Cup next summer. For the entire list of countries and their odds to win the 2010 World Cup you van visit Bodog.
Argentina +500
Brazil +500
Spain +600
England +800
Italy +1000
Germany +1200
Holland +1200
France +2000
Portugal +2500
Russia +2800
Paraguay +4000
Ivory Coast +4000
Czech Rep +6600
Mexico +6600
Nigeria +6600
Croatia +6600
Ghana +6600
Uruguay +8000
Turkey +8000
USA +10000
