South Africa, Mexico Get The 2010 World Cup Party Started

Like many soccer betting fans, you’ve been waiting for four years to find out who the next World Cup Champion will be since the Italians went on their magical run in 2006. The wait ends with just one more sleep.

On Friday morning (10:00 AM ET), the 2010 World Cup will commence as the host nation, South Africa, welcomes Mexico to what will undoubtedly be a raucous crowd in Johannasburg. It will be the kick-off game for the World Cup with an important contest between France and Uruguay to follow later in the day.

For World Cup football betting purposes, there is some good value betting Mexico in the opener. While they are no powerhouse, South Africa is ranked much further down the ladder than their spot, which is No. 17 overall. Furthermore, Mexico is more experienced and they have played some tough competition in World Cup friendlies – facing England and Netherlands – in the hope to be in good form for this match. South Africa hasn’t faced nearly the same caliber of opponent in their preparation.


On top of that, while South Africa will have the home field advantage, one has to wonder if that edge could be a disadvantage with an inexperienced team. The world will be watching and that will surely add some pressure on their performance whereas Mexico should be far more relaxed. Bet on Mexico as they offer great value for the win at +130.

In the second contest of the day, France will show us what they are made of. The 1998 World Cup Champions have looked horrendous of late and there is some real concern as they head into the World Cup. For starters, they needed a handball miracle by Thierry Henry just to help qualify for the World Cup Finals and in a recent friendly against China, they lost 1-0 (China was a +1600 underdog). And that also came on the heels of a 1-1 draw with Tunisia.

It’s tough to trust France in this spot so if you’re going to bet on this game, the draw might be a wiser choice at +220.