Argentina World Cup Betting

Odds: 10/1

Positives

Argentina certainly have the personnel to go all the way in this year’s World Cup. Familiar names to English Premier League followers like Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano are accompanied by FIFA World Player of the Year Lionel Messi, Real Madrid star striker Gonzalo Higuain and old stalwarts like Juan Sebastian Veron and Walter Samuel potentially creating the perfect blend of youth and experience. They also have the easiest of World Cup groups and shouldn’t have any trouble against Greece, Nigeria or South Korea which will allow them the chance to gradually improve as the tournament progresses and enter the knockout stages without too much mental or physical fatigue.

Negatives

Manager Diego Maradona has yet to show that he has the tactical or motivational nous which will allow them to compete with the best teams in the world. They struggled through their South American qualifying group finishing in fourth spot and were completely outclassed in their home game against Brazil. They will need to improve hugely on that effort if they are to get past the quarter-finals stage here, a feat they haven’t achieved since the 1990 World Cup.

Key Player(s)

You don’t win the FIFA World Player of the year and Ballon d’Or awards if you’re not, well, a little bit special. At the ripe old age of 22, midfielder Lionel Messi has done it all at club level with Barcelona including winning multiple La Liga titles, multiple Champions League medals and a FIFA Club World Cup. However, he has been guilty of not producing the same level of performance for the national side as he has done for Barcelona which is an issue that has been poured over by Argentineans for many a year now with little conclusion other than that he prospers when surrounded by the high-quality players at Barcelona.

Another player who has flourished since being surrounded by top quality players is Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain. The youngster – also aged 22 – has blossomed under new manager Manuel Pellegrini to be one of the top goal scorers in La Liga but he has only a handful of international appearances to his name, he will need to make another big step up in order to be a prominent force in the 2010 World Cup.

Best Bet

Argentina really have landed a ‘right touch’ in the World Cup groups draw and it is hard to see how, even on the relatively poor form that they showed in their qualification campaign, that they can fail to top Group B. Nigeria are the most likely to qualify alongside them and the two teams face each other in the opening game, Argentina can win that one (or at worst avoid defeat) and go on to win the group.

Back Argentina to win Group B @ 8/15