World Cup Picture Taking Shape But Who Will be Winners in South Africa? By Jason Atherton At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

With England safely through to the 2010 FIFA World Cup Finals in South Africa, it is now the waiting game to see who will join them.

Shocks are already on the horizon, particularly in the south America group, where Argentina, coached by one of the greatest football talents ever seem, Diego Maradona, have slid to a fourth defeat in five games and at this juncture they are out of the qualification zone.
So far the 10 teams worldwide to have qualified so far are:

EUROPE – Spain, England, Holland.
AFRICA – S Africa, Ghana
ASIA – Australia, S Korea, N Korea
S AMERICA – Brazil, Paraguay.

These will almost certainly be joined by New Zealand, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Slovakia and Italy, but all other teams who are close to qualifying still must fight on to get through.

As far as the betting is concerned it is Euro 2008 Champions, Spain and five time World Cup winners Brazil who dispute favouritism, with England the third favourites. Surprisingly, the Bookmakers remain confident about Argentina’s chances of qualifying and list them at around the 10/1 mark to win. Germany are around the 11/1 mark, while Holland, who looked every bit as impressive as Spain and England in qualifying are around 12/1, along with World Champions, Italy.

In all, 32 teams will be in South Africa in June 2010 and they will play from 11 June through until the final on 11 July.

It seems ironic that the two best players in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi may not be there. Ronaldo plays for Portugal of course and they are struggling to qualify from European Qualifying Group One, where they currently lie in third place on 12 points behind Denmark (18) and Sweden (15). They have two remaining games which they must win to have any chance. Those games fortunately for them are both at home, against Hungary and then against the Group’s whipping boys, Malta but they must still overcome the Play offs.

Messi, who was the star of the Champions League last season, finds himself playing in an Argentina side, short of guidance and confidence. They currently lie fifth place on 22 points and to qualify they must be in the top four. With Brazil and Paraguay already qualified, Argentina must overhaul the two other teams above them, Ecuador on 23 points and Chile on 37 points. Each team has two games left to play, with Argentina talking on bottom side Peru next and having to round things off against one of their deadliest of rivals, Uruguay in Montevideo. Ecuador must also play Uruguay and then Chile, who may well be by then already qualified.

As far as winning in South Africa goes the betting is likely to be very near the mark, with Spain having the pedigree to win the World cup for the first time in their history. Brazil and England are both good enough to make the final, but apart from the Dutch and the Italians, there seems little chance for the rest. History suggests that the bookmaker rarely get it wrong when it comes to World Cup betting, with all abr one the winners coming from the top five teams in bookies lists. Only France defied that trend when winning the competition as host nation in 1998.

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