On Friday, 11th of June, the World Cup will finally have its start. The opening game will be played at Johannesburg and it will oppose Mexico to South Africa, the host of this competition. This will be the first WC tournament held on African ground and that’s why the expectations are higher than usual regarding the African teams’ performances. South Africa is one of the teams who are expected “to do well” here, not especially because of their value or the level of their football, but mainly because they will probably benefit of the host nation statute. They weren’t impressive in their latest friendly games, playing against minnow teams, only Columbia ad Denmark being of a higher facture. They were receiving easy penalties against Guatemala and Colombia and I expect this trend to continue at the WC. It never happened for a host nation to fail to qualify from the group stage and, despite being the weakest team from their group, some games will probably be played behind the curtains. The referee in the first game will be a guy from Uzbekistan, so I wouldn’t be surprised by anything.
Prepared
Mexico was one of the first teams who started the preparations, playing no less than 8 friendly games in the last month. Coach Aguirre finally decided his squad for the WC and, despite some internal conflicts between him and Giovanni dos Santos (regarding the dropping from the squad of his brother Jonathan), they performed well against Italy. They are strong at the back, having many classy defenders who are playing in Europe and they could develop some fast attack using the pace of Vela and dos Santos. Anyway, their central midfield area doesn’t posses too much depth , this being their “Achilles heel”. Also, the central striker will be chosen between an out of form Franco or the grandpa Blanco. Not bright either…
Draw
I believe both teams will feel the pressure of the opening game and we will witness an ugly game, with a careful approach from both of the teams. Mexico is the better team, no doubt about it, but South Africa at home will be a hard nut to crack. A draw is in the cards for this game and, although I’m not a fan of betting on draws, I feel both teams will not be too disheartened by that outcome. Moderate stakes…
P.S. I almost forgot another plus for the South African players, who could also reduce the gap between the teams: the mighty vuvuzelas!
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Prediction:
Tip: X
Odd: 3.30
Bookie: Ladbrokes
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