The World Cup warm-up event the Confederations Cup starts
this weekend with critics still questioning the tournaments existence.
Some see event as an end of season waste of time especially
when you consider the majority of sides at the tournament have rescheduled
important World-Cup qualifiers to be here.
Despite the complaints, the 2009 tournament was an excellent
event which saw numerous shocks and some amazing matches.
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| Brazil came from two goals down to beat the US in the 09 final |
Of the groups, the first one is the hardest to call. If you
are unsure who’ll progress from the group here is a few gambling tips including
a shock semi-finalists pick.
The sides
Brazil
Brazil have only won twice this calendar year, failing to
overcome England on a couple of occasions, means they hardly go into the
tournament in the best of form.
Despite their questionable form, the bookies never overlook
Brazil and the hosts are favourites to win the Confederations Cup for a third
consecutive year.
Luis Felipe Scolari has selected a young squad, excluding
previous Ballon D’Or winners in the form of Ronaldinho and Kaka. The former
Chelsea manager clearly has more than one eye on next year’s World Cup as he
looks to bled some of those tipped to excel come 2014.
Gambling tips: Back
Brazil to make the final.
Japan
Japan became the first nation to qualify for the World Cup
following a 1-1 draw at home to Australia last week.
They have taken a technically sound squad with them to
Brazil, which includes no less than eight players from the Bundesliga. Their key
players in the form of Shinji Kagawa and Keisuke Honda have both been selected
and their hopes of getting out of a daunting group could rest on these two
creative players.
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| If Kagawa can fire then Japan shock a few at the tournament |
Japan can be found as long as 50/1 to win the tournament
which is surprisingly long. I don’t they Alberto Zaccheroni’s side have a
decent chance of getting out of the group, which at odds of 8/1 has
real value.
Gambling tips: If
Japan can get four points from Mexico and Italy I think they’ll get out of the
group. Semi-finalists.
Mexico
Mexico have not had the best of times lately and their place
at the 2014 World Cup is far from assured.
The majority of the 23 selected for the tournament are
home-based players and they’ve struggled to score goals of late, despite Javier
Hernandez’s best efforts. Valencia’s Andres Guardado is their best player and
he’ll have to be excellent to give them a chance.
I think they are the worse of the four sides in the group
and I’m baffled as to why they are as short as 12/1 to win the whole thing.
Gambling tip: Don’t
expect them to qualify from the group.
Italy
Italy were embarrassed in a warm-up friendly with Haiti as
the minnows came from behind to earn an amazing 2-2 draw.
While the majority of the infamous Italian old guard has
gone, the class of Juventus duo Andrea Pirlo and Gianluigi Buffon remain. Their
lack of a real world-class striker has caused them problems for some time and
it’s evident at this tournament. Although Mario Balotelli has all the
ingredients to be exactly what Italy requires, their back-ups aren’t good
enough.
Their game against Japan will be the big one for me and if
they fail to win they may have to get something against Brazil.
Gambling tip: I
feel they will narrowly be edged out of qualification and finish third.
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