Confederations Cup Group B preview

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.

After looking at the first group yesterday, here is a preview of Group B, where there are two clear favourites to progress.

The sides (odds of winning whole tournament next to name)

Spain – 7/4 with William Hill

Three successive major tournament victories is an incredible return for the golden Spanish generation and unsurprisingly they are on the favourites to win here.

Vincente Del Bosque, who has masterminded two of the three tournament triumphs, hasn’t sprung my shocks in his squad selection. Apart from the obvious qualities, the Spanish squad is also vastly experienced, with no less than 11 of the 23 already owning over 50 caps for their nation.

Of all the sides at the Confederations Cup Spain are certainly the best and they will want to make up for their 2009 semi-final shock defeat to the USA.

The only worry I hold for Spain is in the centre forward department and they could struggle for goals. 

Fernando Torres and David Villa aren’t the same strikers they once were, meaning Valencia’s Roberto Soldado could feature more.

Gambling Tip: Back Spain to win the whole thing.

Uruguay – 11/1 with Bet Way

Despite struggling in South American World Cup qualification, their team is still an excellent one and it was only two years ago they won the Copa America.

Their 1-0 away win over Venezuela on Tuesday night has got them back into the play-off spot and was also great preparation for this tournament.

The duo of Suarez and Cavani have 45 international goals between them

In Edison Cavani and Luis Suarez they easily have the best centre forward partnership at the competition and should have no problems scoring goals.

Gambling Tip: Back them to at least make the semi-finals.

Tahiti – 5000/1 with Sky Bet

I’d be lying if I said I knew a lot about Tahiti. I don’t.

All but one of their players plying their trade in their domestic league and they won the 2012 Oceania Nations Cup to make this tournament.  

It’s hard to see the Oceania minnows claiming even a point from their three games; however it will be a great experience for the squad. 

Gambling Tip: There is a reason they have odds of 5000/1 to win the whole thing! Bottom of the group; expect a lot of goals to be conceded.

Nigeria – 40/1 with Bet Way

Nigerian coach Stephen Keshi appears to have one eye on the 2014 World Cup after picking a rather inexperienced squad for the Confederations Cup.

Nigeria beat Burkina Faso 1-0 in the African Cup of Nations final to be here

In comparison to Spain’s total of 11 players with over 50 national caps, Nigeria only have one and that’s the goalkeeper. Incredibly 12 of the 23 players selected haven’t even reached double figures in caps.

Victor Moses and Emmanuel Emineke haven’t been selected and without these two it’s hard to see the African Cup of Nations champions getting out of the group.

Gambling tip: They should beat Tahiti, but that’ll be it. 

Copa America - An Overview Part One

The 2011 Copa America in Argentina as a tournament had everything from a side reaching the final despite not winning a game the whole tournament to a well deserved winning side. Uruguay, the South American side who went the furthest at the 201o FIFA World Cup, got better as the tournament went on and were comfortable winners in the final against Paraguay. The pre-tournament usual favourites, Brazil and the host nation Argentina, were poor, with both just winning one of their four games.

The Group Stages

Group A 
Host nation Argentina were given on paper a relatively simple progression into the knock out round; however they had to settle for second place in the group as Colombia edged them out. Argentina were poor in their opening two matches, and were fortunate to collect successive draws. Under Sergio Batista, Argentina opted for three defensive midfielders in their opening two games and only a change in their approach (which saw the inclusion of Angel Di Maria and Sergio Aguero) saw them progress. Defensively, despite conceding just the one goal, Argentina were poor and only a combination of poor finishing and good goalkeeping from Sergio Romero, especially against Colombia, ensured no first round humiliation for the hosts. With a vast amount of their players well known across Europe, Camilo Zuniga of Napoli and Radamel Falcao Garcia of Atletico Madrid, to name but two, it was no surprise to see Colombia progress, and they really should have progressed with a 100% win ratio, with a goalless draw against Argentina the only blight on their copybook. Bolivia and Costa Rica were the other two sides in Group A, and despite both recording one good result (For Bolivia a draw with Argentina, whilst Costa Rica overcame Bolivia in what was the battle to avoid being bottom), they never really threatened to progress, with the latter always going to struggle without their star player Brian Ruiz.

Group B
Brazil (arguably undeservedly) topped Group B thanks to victory in their final Group B match against Ecuador. For the most part Paraguay were the best side in the Group, and if it wasn't for late collapses against Brazil and Venezuela they would have been easy winners of Group B. After the opening round of fixtures in Group B failed to produce a goal, the all important second matches saw Brazil rescue a late point against Paraguay thanks to the former Lyon striker Fred, whilst surprise package Venezuela stunned a Antonio Valencia less Ecuador. The game of the group stages saw Venezuela book their last eight spot thanks to an incredible comeback against Paraguay. 3-1 down with just two minutes to go, late strikes from Miku and Grenddy Perozo rescued a point for the Group underdogs. Despite throwing four points away Paraguay were through (ironically thanks to Argentina's victory over Costa Rica, as two of the groups needed three qualifiers and Paraguay had a better goal difference then Group A's third place side). Going into the last game Brazil themselves needed a result against Ecuador, and thanks to two goals apiece from Neymar and Alexandre Pato they eased past their opponents 4-2, in their most convincing performance of the tournament.

Group C
Uruguay like many of the other pre-tournament favourites started in slow fashion; however they like Chile and Peru qualified in comfortable fashion. A Mexico side (made up of predominately under 23 year old's because of their decision to take their strongest squad to the Gold Cup rather then the Copa America) battled well but ended up pointless and bottom. Chile, despite being under different leadership to Marcelo Biesla, continued to play three at the back, and their style of play was brilliant to watch, with Alexis Sanchez's fantastic team goal in their draw with Uruguay the highlight. Uruguay and their embarrassment of attacking riches (Diego Forlan, Luis Suarez, Edison Cavani and Alvaro Pereira) required at least a draw with Mexico in their last Group game to ensure progression and thanks to Pereira's early strike, they eased through in second place, edging out Peru who lost to Chile, but still did enough to qualify.

Part two to follow soon.

Sanchez rounds off class team goal in draw with Uruguay

In a highly entertaining draw, the much sought after winger Alexis Sanchez rounded off a lovely team goal. The draw see's Chile and Peru level of points at the top of Group C, with the World Cup semi-finalists Uruguay needing a victory to ensure qualification for the knock out stages.