USA World Cup Betting Preview

USA odds and free bets for 2010 World Cup

U.S.A are the number one ranked team in North America and, surprisingly, the 14th ranked team in the world. The 2010 World Cup will be their 6th consecutive appearance in the tournament and they have made 8 previous World Cup appearances. Their best ever position was third in the inaugural tournament, in Uruguay back in 1930.

In the CONCACAF qualification, the 6 teams in the final group were; U.S.A, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago and El Salvador. U.S.A were always favourites, along with Mexico, to qualify, and they lived up to these expectations by finishing top of the group. Of the 10 games they played, U.S.A only lost 2; 3-1 to Costa Rica and 2-1 to Mexico. They finished the group on 20 points, one point ahead of rivals Mexico.

U.S.A’s top scorer in the qualification process was on loan Hull striker, Jozy Altidore, who scored 6 goals, just edging Fulham’s Clint Dempsey, who scored 5. Altidore, however, is generally not renowned as a consistent goalscorer and odds of 200/1 on him finishing as the top goal scorer in South Africa reflect this. A more likely goalscorer for U.S.A would be on loan Everton forward and national talisman, Landon Donovan who is available at 180/1. Donovan is the U.S.A’s all time record goalscorer, having scored 42 goals in 120 appearances. A lot of U.S.A’s players will be familiar to fans of English football and one of their stars is Everton goalkeeper, Tim Howard. Howard is just the next in a long line of excellent American keepers, such as Kasey Keller, Brad Friedel and Marcus Hahnemann, and big things will be expected from Howard in South Africa.

The U.S.A will open the tournament with a match against England in Rustenburg on June 12th. The other two teams in group C are Algeria and Slovenia, which makes the U.S.A definite favourites to finish the group in second position behind England. Odds of 23/17 are available for U.S.A to finish as runners up in group B or 7/10 to qualify in either position. The U.S.A are unlikely to struggle too much against Slovenia or Algeria, so long as they play somewhere near their potential. An interesting bet involving the U.S.A is for both Mexico and themselves to qualify from their respective groups. This is available at 21/10 which is reasonable good value, seeing as U.S.A would be expected to qualify and Mexico have a good chance of qualifying from their group as well (France, Uruguay, South Africa). Although it would be considered unlikely for U.S.A to be eliminated at the group stage, it is still a possibility, as Algeria are tough opposition, having just finished 4th in the African Cup of Nations. The best price available on U.S.A to be knocked out at the group stage is 11/8.

Reccomended bets: U.S.A and Mexico to reach last 16 (21/10 with Victor Chandler)

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