Nice to bag a 17 winner with no trading required in the Holland v Chile game yesterday. Nothing else came to fruition, the speculative Paulinho bet was soon taken care of by Neymar who looked very sharp as Brazil stuffed Cameroon – the commentator said Cameroon can take some credit from the game, I was not really sure how.
Croatia were really disappointing against Mexico the usually very effective Modric did nothing and Mexico over ran them. Mexico are certainly playing well but difficult to assess whether it was all Mexico or Croatia just had a really off day.
Spain took care of Australia with minimum fuss to restore some pride. We now know the first two last 16 matches and they both look good games to start that phase of the tournament.
Today two more groups are finalised. Group D gets the 5PM slot with Italy v Uruguay being the two sides battling it out for the second qualifying spot. Italy only need a draw and we have seen them prevail in this situation many times. Uruguay have to win the game and with Suarez in the side as we saw against England anything can happen. If he gets a sniff it is in the back of the net.
I am going to side with the Azzurri. Uruguay scored twice against England owing to mistakes in the English midfield and hapless defending more than controlling the game. Italy I feel may well have just underestimated Costa Rica and gave an all round below par performance. Italys midfield is far superior and they will push Uruguay back hopefully opening doors for Pirlo and De Rossi to pick out the forwards. It appears Italy will go two up top giving them more options. Uruguay without Suarez were awful against Costa Rica, and with Suarez were not much better except for England mistakes and his class.
I have backed Uruguay in the win market outright for the tournament so I will cover that bet with a win bet on Italy tonight at odds of 2.6. and a very small cover on the draw in tonights game also at 3.5.
I will have a small bet on Pirlo first goalscorer at 18 also.
The second game in the group is the dead rubber of Costa Rica v England. England have made wholesale changes and my personal belief is it is only for the good. I just cannot bide this Gerrard/Lampard shall they retire garbage. If Gerrard is really thinking of carrying on and does eventually decide to, Hodgson will almost certainly play him and we may as well confine the next couple of years to the garbage can. It seems no one can criticise him, he is a shadow of the player that we used to see making surging runs from midfield into the box and pulling strings across the park. If Rooney (who is another that persistently under performs for England) had made the errors Gerrard has made the press would be slaughtering him.
So I am looking forward to seeing the young guard in particular Ross Barkley who looks like a player capable of changing a game, the first we have had since Gascoigne 20 odd years ago. I am sure the team tonight will give their all for a win.
Costa Rica have been a surprise and yes played well but against opponents who have under performed. Costa Rica are still a team that lost to the likes of Honduras and drew with Ireland and Jamaica this year. They don’t need anything as even a small loss will see them top the group if Italy don’t stuff Uruguay.
England at 1.82 is not a bet for me and I must take account of the fact that they do have nowt to play for.
So I will just have a couple of small CS bets for some potential trading. 0-2 at 11 and 1-2 at 9.6.
The 9PM games see Japan v Colombia. Colombia don’t need to win and it is a strange situation as the winner of this group will probably meet Italy or Uruguay and the second would likely meet Costa Rica. I think all would rather play Costa Rica so Colombia certainly don’t have to bust a gut. For Colombia not to top the group though they need to lose and hope Ivory Coast beat Greece. Japan need to beat Colombia and hope Greece win the other game to qualify.
Colombia will rest players any may still be too good for Japan and 2.1 usually would be a price I snapped up for a fair bet. Given the circumstances though I will have a small interest on Colombia at that price. I will have a further small dabble on the 1-1 at 8.8 and 1-2 at 10.
In the other game Greece v Ivory Coast, I am hoping one of these teams finally puts in a performance. I have previously mentioned how good I think some of the Ivorian players are but they simply have not performed. If Colombia win then Ivory Coast only need a point and I think they should get it comfortably. Greece are poor and cannot score goals.
I don’t think it will be an onslaught and it could be a nervy last 20 minutes for the Ivorians if Colombia are winning and they are drawing as they decide to hold out and hope those results stay the same or push to guarantee the spot whatever happens.
I will take a slim Ivorian win backing them at 2.04 small. Nothing else is of huge appeal score wise. I will have a very small dabble on Yaya Toure first goalscorer at 9.4 as he has a habit of getting big game goals.
3 Responses
I think it’s really tough to call the Costa Rica v England match tonight, If I was the Costa Rica manager I would be resting all of my key players and in terms of topping the group I don’t think it really matters there isn’t a really difficult team in the other group so there is minimal difference between finishing 1st and 2nd and even at that as long as they avoid a serious thrashing by England or some unusual scoreline happens in the Italy v Uruguay match then they should expect to top the group.
I do think England will beat Costa Rica, they are playing for pride and Costa Rica will almost certainly be taking it easy.
However I think I will be mostly watching the Italy v Uruguay match tonight, with Italy only needing a point I expect it to be a tight affair with Italy controlling most of the action, but I do expect there to be goals I think a 1-1 draw sounds about right but I will back the over 2.5 goal market and trade out after the first goal.
In the Greece v Ivory Coast match I see it being a very tight affair with very few goals. I think I will be laying the over 3.5 goal market and looking to trade out at half time. If its 0-0 I might even let it run 10 minutes of the second half.
On the England front i think your bang on with Ross Barclay and Steve G,also Wayne,you know i watch football all the time for the past 45 years and i here these are players for the future for the future for the future,our critics on TV seem to forget every other foreign team has to rebuild Spain Belgium Germany Holland all went back to building,Spain have taken years to get anywhere but eventually 3 times major trophies on the spin,Germany once since i been alive got battered in one tournament so my question is are we building a WINNING team for the future? not just players,we have the greatest league in the world with a lot of foreigners in it,they are only here for our wages as we pay the best,as we see when they play for there own country they slag us off,i could go on for kin ages,one last thing is our pundits doing analysis,so kin boring and don’t say what is what why are they such pussies lee dixon danny murphy gus strachan kilbane just a free kin holiday absolute useless,only Robbie savage and Chris waddle says how it is truthfully and respectfully and waddle aint even there,Wrighty is OK especially on England,says how it is,when we lose which is often,promise last thing,i thought we were on our way when Bobby Robson and Terry ven were at the helm we building then gazza lineker etc but the bubble burst and where back to square one we did not carry on….cheers for the rant legsdiamond
Ian I wouldn’t trust ENGLAND with my money! Much more chance of 2-0,2-1 COSTA for me but that’s what I LOVE about this Game…Everyone has an OPINION (And everyone is RIGHT 😉