FIFA World Cup 2014: The Show Is Going To Begin
FIFA World cup is approaching and the atmosphere surrounding the 20th edition of the World cup is getting tighter. In little less than three months time, 32 teams from all over the world will gather in Brazil to compete for the world’s best football team. The draws have already been made in December and the teams have been put in eight groups with each consisting of four teams. Due to the fact that football has evolved on the astonishing level, we will have many attractive and interesting games to follow.
Group A features hosts Brazil, which will play the opening game against Croatia on June 12 in Sao Paolo. Aside from Brazil, group A will feature Cameroon and Mexico. With Brazil being the only clear favorite of the group, betting odds suggest that all three remaining teams have equal chances of progressing through to the last 16.
Group B is by some considered to be the group of death. It features the rerun of the 2010 FIFA World cup final, featuring Netherlands, Chile, Australia and Spain. With Spain being the main favorite of the group, the Netherlands will face a strong challenge from Chile, which was pretty confident during the South American qualifiers.
Group C is a very tied group and betting on these teams is considered to bring big risks with it. Generally speaking, Columbia, Ivory Coast, Greece and Japan all have equal chances of progressing to last 16. Columbia was by some reporters even favored to go through to the last 16, but with Falcao’s injury, their expectations have fallen and Columbian betting now looks to be a liability.
Official group of death and probably the most interesting group of 2014 World cup is group D. It consists of Italy, Uruguay, England and Costa Rica. Practically all teams, besides Costa Rica, might be looking to go to the last 16 stage. We will witness absolute classics in this group, such as another England vs Italy game.
France squeezed to yet another participation for the World cup, following their controversial win against Ukraine. In group E, France will face Honduras, Switzerland and Ecuador. All teams are pretty much equal and have same betting odds to qualify to the next round, The crucial game is that between France and Switzerland, but Ecuador won’t just sit and wait, they probably have their calculations as well.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only debutant for the 2014 FIFA World cup, but the betting odds don’t look bad for this small European nation. They come a long way here and reaching last 16 would mean a world to them. To reach that status, they will have to overcome the challenge from Nigeria and Iran in group F, which also secretly hope for a place in the last 16. Group favorites Argentina is nearly out of reach.
Germany is surely one of the favorite for the tournament and since 2006 they come up really close on several occasions. With the new generation of players maturing pretty fast, Germany will most likely progress in group G for sure, but also win the cup. A good test will be the games against United States, Portugal and Ghana, which will again feature brothers Boateng playing against each other.
The weakest group of the tournament is group H, with Belgium, Algeria, South Korea and Russia. Teams give betting shops around the world big headache about the last 16, but Russia and Belgium hold the upper hand.
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