2010 World Cup Team Previews: Serbia

The world cup finals in South Africa will soon be upon us and will provide sports-fans with a festival of competitive football, providing bettors with some mouth-watering chances to pit their tactical acumen in one of the biggest global sporting tournaments of all. The draws have all been done and the teams know whom they will face in the group stages, so just what has this done to affect team odds?

Let’s take a closer look at another of the teams from Group D, Serbia. According to their coach, Radomir Antic, they have a realistic chance to progress, despite the fact that they are in one of the toughest groups: “All of our group rivals are top quality sides, and all have a number of outstanding individual players, but I do believe that we have a genuine opportunity of getting through to the last 16.

The Serbians are coming into these World Cup finals for the very first time as a fully-fledged independent nation, although they are certainly no strangers to global tournament action. They were previously known as Yugoslavia all the way up until 2003, and afterwards, until 2006, as Serbia and Montenegro. They have played in nine World Cup finals between 1930 and 2002 and have twice finished in second place in two European championships.

Serbia have a current FIFA world ranking of 20, and their current odds to win the upcoming world cup are +7000. Their first game as an independent nation was in August 2006 and they beat the Czech Republic 3-1 away. They have plenty of experience, though none more so that their coach who has previously coached Real Madrid, Real Zaragoza, Athletico Madrid and Barcelona, so he will not be fazed when the pressure games come around and this will definitely benefit his players and help the team’s odds. The side also has plenty of talented youngsters who bookmakers feel will have a lot to prove come June.

Serbia’s recent run of success has, like the Australia’s, been built around a powerful defensive unit, anchored by Manchester United star Nemanja Vidic. He is joined by Chelsea’s Ivanovic, and they are joined by Inter Midfielder Dejan Stankovic who will be coming off of an excellent season, where his team is close to securing both the Italian league title and the UEFA Champions League. In qualification rounds, Serbia finished top of Group 7 ahead of France, although bookies agree that they will have their work cut out to advance from the group stage.