Mexico World Cup Betting Preview

Mexico odds and free bets for 2010 World Cup

Mexico have very much been World Cup underachievers. Their best World Cup results have been two quarter finals, in 1970 and 1986 and arguably the nation’s best ever player, Hugo Sanchez, was denied the chance to play at a World Cup during his prime years when Mexico were banned from the 1990 competition.

The CONCACAF qualification process consists of 4 stages. As one of the top seeds, Mexico were awarded a bye to the 2nd round, where they drew Belize and beat them, convincingly, 9-0 over two legs. In the 3rd round they finished second in a group of 4, behind Honduras, to qualify for the final round. In the final round they finished 2nd once more (W6, D1, L3) behind the U.S.A. which meant they qualified for South Africa. Mexico didn’t really finish with any standout goalscorers, with their goals being spread throughout the team.

Mexico’s talisman is their 37 year old forward, Cuauhtémoc Blanco who has played 107 times for his country, scoring a total of 37 goals. He could be supported in attack by young, energetic, Arsenal striker, Carlos Vela. Mexico have a solid base in defence as well, with a very goalkeeper, Guillermo Ochoa and Barcelona centre-back Rafael Marquez both very dependable. The most exciting player for Mexico is likely to be Deportivo La Coruña left winger, Andres Guardado, who could be a real one to watch for Mexico. Moments of magic from players like Guardado could make the difference in a tough group for Mexico.

Mexico will probably be fairly confident ahead of the World Cup. Although not being amongst the favourites to win the tournament, they will definitely expect to qualify from their group. Mexico are certainly good enough to finish at least 2nd in the group and may well even trouble France. Odds of 4/1 are available for anyone who fancies Mexico to win the group, which is without doubt a possibility. France are unpredictable and a slightly off form French team would struggle against Mexico. The safest money is definitely on Mexico to qualify at 10/11, which represents fairly decent value. The alternative is to try and predict their exact finishing position, which in this group, could be anywhere from 1st to 4th, but should be 2nd. There is some great value in Mexico to finish 2nd, with them available at 40/17.  On paper, Mexico are undoubtedly the second best team in the group and should finish there if everything goes to form.

Reccomended bets: As Japan are one of the lowest ranked teams in the tournament, the best bets to make on them are bets on single matches. William Hill prices Japan at 13/5 to beat Cameroon whereas Bet365 offer odds of 23/10 in the event of a draw. SkyBet prices a Japan victory against the Netherlands at 13/2 and Victor Chandler offers odds of 11/4 for a draw in this match. Finally SkyBet offer odds of 3/1 for Japan to beat Denmark and also offer odds of 9/4 for a draw in this tie.

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