South Africa World Cup Betting Preview

South Africa odds and free bets for 2010 World Cup

South Africa will be the hosts of the 2010 World Cup and this adds extra pressure to an already fading side. It has only been 18 years since South Africa returned to the international stage, following a 30 year FIFA ban.

South Africa have had very little World Cup success. 1994 was the first year they ever attempted to qualify for a World Cup, but they did not succeed in qualifying. Since then, however, they have missed only one of the last four World Cups (including 2010). Both in France and Korea & Japan, South Africa failed to qualify from the first round group. After missing the 2006 World Cup, South Africa will be looking at attempting to secure their best ever result in 2010, a tournament which they host and thus, automatically qualify for. Due to this, we cannot gauge their current form on their qualifying performance. Instead we can evaluate their recent form in the African Cup of Nations. South Africa have performed poorly in Africa’s premier international tournament in recent years. After being eliminated in the first round the previous 3 tournaments, South Africa failed to qualify completely for the 2010 tournament in Angola. An interesting fact to note, however, is that South Africa’s only success in the tournament came as hosts, back in 1996.

South Africa’ s World Cup squad is likely to feature a few Premier League players. Portsmouth’s captain, Aaron Mokoena is also the national team’s captain and South Africa’s most capped player. Mokoena is one cap away from his 100th for South Africa.  South Africa’s record goalscorer, Benni Mccarthy, may also be in the squad. Mccarthy has 35 goals for his country, but has fallen out of favour recently and will be hoping a January move to West Ham will help him gain a place in the squad.

In World Cup history the host nation has won 6 of the 19 World Cup tournaments. Taking a look at the last 3 tournaments shows us the success that home teams have. Germany finished 3rd in 2006, South Korea finished 4th in 2002 and France won in 1998. South Africa, however, may well be the team to break the great run of success that host nations have been having. In none of the nineteen previous World Cup’s has the host nation been eliminated in the first round, but South Africa are odds on to be the first, priced at 4/11 not to qualify. They are available at 8/5 to finish bottom of the group, but it’d be a surprise to see them come away without any results. On the other hand, a tricky group means South Africa could fail to take any points whatsoever, which is available at 21/2. The best bet available would be South Africa to finish with less than 3.5 points, which is available at a price of 18/19. A bet on South Africa to be the top African at 16/1 would be very much an outside bet, with teams like Ivory Coast and Ghana must more favoured.

Reccomended bets: South Africa to score less than 3.5 points (18/19 with expekt.com)

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