New Zealand World Cup Betting Preview

New Zealand odds and free bets for 2010 World Cup

This is New Zealand’s first appearance at the World Cup since Spain 1982. The team are nicknamed the All Whites as a contrast from the famous All Black Rugby team. New Zealand qualified for the 2009 Confederations Cup; however they failed to win a game and finished the tournament with only one point after a hard fought draw against Iraq. The playoff game against Bahrain to qualify for South Africa finally managed to get the Rugby mad nation to get behind their football team. The match in capital Wellington was a record capacity for the All Whites. New Zealand are predicted not to be a threat the World Cup finals at all with Coral offering odds of 2500/1 for a New Zealand triumph, Paddy Power offer far shorted odds at 750/1. One thing is for sure, all bookmakers predict that New Zealand have no chance of lifting the World Cup trophy.

New Zealand’s qualifying campaign was fairly straightforward. They topped their Oceanic qualifying group with only one loss. This earned them the right to play a play off eleven months later against Bahrain, the first leg ended 0-0 and the return leg in Wellington ended 1-0 to the All whites and sealed qualification to South Africa and only their second world Cup finals.

New Zealand have been drawn to play Italy, Paraguay and Slovakia in Group F. This is a strong group which New Zealand are highly unlikely to qualify from. The Bookmakers reflect this with William Hill offering odds of 12/1 for them to qualify to the next stage and SkyBet offering odds of 1/25 for them not to qualify.

New Zealand are clearly regarded as one of the tournaments weakest teams, however there are several players who will hope to aid the All Whites’ World Cup cause. Captain and Blackburn Rovers defender Ryan Nielsen is the most well known player in the team and the only player to feature in the national team. Middlesbrough striker Chris Killen is a player tipped to cause defences some problems as is Shane Smeltz who is the Australian A league top scorer, Smeltz is priced at 500/1 to be the tournament’s top scorer.

Reccomended bets: New Zealand are unlikely to be a threat in South Africa; the best bets are bets on single matches against the other group sides as like all teams they are capable of causing an upset. Firstly Victor Chandler offer odds of 7/1 for a victory against Slovakia and Sportingbet offer odds of 16/5 for a draw.

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