A blank day yesterday as Germany stuffed Portugal with their usual efficiency. Pepe collected the 13th red card of his career and with that the game as a contest ended and it was simply a matter of how many. Germany should comfortably secure passage through now as group leaders.
Iran and Nigeria I mentioned it may be dismal and I mentioned my preference was for the draw. Sure enough a very dull 0-0 played out and Nigeria were simply awful in midfield.
The Ghana v USA game was a decent watch but I had to agree with Robbie Savage, Ghana just played hopeful balls into the box, there was no cutting edge and the USA showed a great work ethic to nick a very valuable win. Ghana’s days may well be done as I cannot see them getting anything from Germany and Portugal surely will be better against lower opposition. So a damp squib day all round.
Today we reach the stage where we will have seen all teams play at least once. It is supposed that we l;earn something as we go along, but I am not so sure other than the effective Italian & German sides I think a lot of the other sides have either under performed or in some cases maybe over performed or been allowed to over perform, so the second round of matches may prove tricky. Plenty of goals have been scored and favourites seem to be mostly prevailing as would be expected.
Another of my pre tournament outsiders is in action today with Belgium opening their account against Algeria. They should see off Algeria comfortably today, certainly if they want to leave any kind of mark in the tournament and the 1/2 Coral offered up early seemed generous and did not last long ( I tried to get a bet on but shows what a joke they are as I was retracted to a stupid amount). I make them a 1/3 shot at worst so anything better than that is worth a bet if you like short prices.
Kompany, Vertonghen, Hazard, Lukaku, Courtois, De Bruyne should all feature in a star studded line up. The squad also has strength in depth to call on if needed.
A few little plays on this one.
HT Scores of 1-0 and 2-0 at 3.6 and 7
Correct Scores of 2-0, 3-0 and 3-1 and 4-1 at 8, 9.6 and 13 and 30
Brazil v Mexico is the 8PM game and may well see the first team to 6 points. Difficult too assess, Brazil looked underwhelming in the first game. Mexico battled through a poor refereeing performance and may be better than is generally thought. IF, and it is a big IF Brazil turn it on as they are able then they will win, anything other than that though and Mexico are more than capable of giving them a good game, particularly with a qualification spot for the taking.
I have to have a small trading punt on Mexico at 10.5 with a view to laying them if they take the lead. I will also have a back of the draw at 5.8 again with a view to trading for profit. I will also have a small dabble on Mexico +1 Asian Handicap at 2.3.
Hopefully Mexico take the lead and that leads to profit and a really open game also. Of course if the ref is in a Brazilian shirt again I am down the swanny!
I cannot say Russia v South Korea really excites me in the late game. It is expected that one of these two will be second behind Belgium in Group H so for them this game is potentially huge to steal a 3 point march on the opponent. Russia’s back line looks ageing and could well be exposed, Korea have been poor recently so all in looks difficult to call. With so much at stake regarding group status neither side is a price I would want to take which has left me with the draw. I will back the draw at 3.75 as I had it lower and I will have a small dabble on 0-0 at 10 and 1-1 at 8.4 for trading purposes.
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2 Responses
I think the ref will be wearing a Brazil shirt, I think Fifa are trying to do as much as they can to ensure that Brazil make it through to the second round as comfortably as possible.
Saying that I do think Brazil will be much better in tonight’s game the opening game is always a nervy occasion, now that its under way and they have three points in the bag I think we will see a much more relaxed Brazil which will lead to a more free flowing style of football that we are used to seeing, if he hasn’t been dropped then Fred has a point to prove after a dismal first match and Neymar will be wanting to stamp his claim to this being his World Cup, so with a mixture of poor refereeing decisions and a couple of Brazilians with something to prove I think Brazil will come out comfortable 3-1 winners
In the other games I would expect Russia to be a match for South Korea however Belgium might struggle against Algeria, they are notorious for playing 11 men behind the ball and Belgium might struggle to break them down, I think Belgium would prefer a more open game if Belgium score first they might be able to score 2 or 3 as Algeria open up but if Algeria score first they will almost certainly park the bus in front of Goal and Belgium might struggle to even get a point.
hi ian…..best of luck in hospital…..
i agreed with your comment about england against italy…..it was as insipid as phil neville’s co-commentary…..the youngsters showed some promise but there was no cutting edge and we just tried to play through a wall of blue around the edge of the box…..rooney should either be played where he usually plays or not at all….having said that, he didn’t always follow the manager’s instructions so, once again, it was all about him and what he wants……for hodgson to say he did well out on the left was a joke….we were all over the place….had roy watched from high up instead of sitting at ground level which i have never understood from a managers point of view, he would have seen the problem…..
ive always hated brazil and the way they play…..it’s all too slow for me and nobody tackles them in their own half…..i’d love to see how they like it with a tony pulis side on their case…..they always fool the referee and cheat but the moron pundits in the studio love them….if brazilian football was that interesting, why is it not sold around the world like the premier league?…..answer, it’s a cure for insomnia…….same for spain…..great to see the dutch tear them and their tikky takky football apart…..who said you can’t run for 90 minites in humidity?…..robben did…..it won’t surpise me if brazil win the wc…..they have the refs on their side and fifa will have briefed the refs not to allow a brazlian player to be tackled…..
re the moron pundits….since when has it been ok for a striker to fall over in the box if his shirt is brushed….yes im asking you alan “contact means you go down” shearer (the man who cost us victory over argentina in 1998)…..i’m fed up with players fooling the ref…..if i had my shirt pulled i’d pull against it as hard as i could so the ref or the linesman could see the offence, not fall over like a big girl’s blouse…….where a ref has not seen blatant cheating as with muller yesterday, there should be serious retrospective action…..that will stop it overnight…….
rant over….