The Football World Cup Draws Near

With only a few short weeks to go until the World Cup then things are really starting to hot up with regards Football World Cup betting. In England there are growing numbers of national flags visible on cars and that is always a sign of a major football tournament looming. The major leagues are drawing to a conclusion with many leagues having finished. The Dutch league and the Championship in England have already concluded and the Europa League final is now less than a week away.

So who will win the World Cup in South Africa? As usual there will be upsets, heartache, penalty shoot-outs, key injuries and teams getting lucky. But that just reflects any cup competition. A team needs an element of luck to win it. Look at Italy four years ago, they had a relatively easy group and did not really play anyone of note until Germany in the semi-final. That was a huge slice of luck and then Zidane gets sent off in the final and they win the penalty shoot-out.

It was exactly the same in 2002 when Germany had a very fortunate series of games to go all the way to the final where they came close to winning it with a very mediocre side. So it is clear that the “luck of the draw” will play a great part. England and Spain have relatively straight forward groups which hopefully should allow them to progress and be able to rest players if England get themselves into that situation.

But the team that wins the tournament is also going to need a very strong squad because to win the World Cup means playing seven games in a month. Bookings will be inevitable and this will lead to suspensions and players will also pick up injuries. When players are already at the end of a long gruelling season then injuries may be lurking just around the corner.

Often it is impossible to identify some types of injuries and some players could be on the verge of picking up injuries that are impossible to detect at this time. So a team will need a strong squad but it definitely helps to have softer games in the earlier stages. This certainly takes the burden off a team at the later stages of the competition.

Many people are quoting Spain as the potential winners and they certainly are the best team in the tournament. But once again the question is, will they be lucky? They are already having problems with players like Torres and Xavi having injuries and should they lose these two players then that would be a major blow for them.

So the World Cup countdown starts here and the luck also starts here and that will continue into the World Cup groups. We already saw how David Beckham will miss the tournament and while he would not have been in the starting eleven, he would have easily been in the squad and he would have certainly been a vital squad member.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson