The final preparations are taking place for those 32 sides who are participating in the world’s greatest competition. Plenty of friendly games to look at this weekend and we have a longshot treble where we are expecting both teams to score while predicting a winner. It is the largest priced treble we have ever provided. Fact.
USA v Nigeria – 11.00pm Saturday
USA to win and BTTS is 4/1 with SkyBet
USA have had some poor results in the last year having suffered defeats to Ukraine, Austria, Costa Rica and Belgium but are on home soil tonight as they take on Nigeria in Jacksonville, Florida in their final warm up game. A 2-1 victory over Turkey last week showed that the States are going to be no pushovers. With Portugal, Ghana and Germany in their group they’re going to need to be on top form to progress. During qualification USA managed to score at will, and with two wins in a row on their record a third looks likely for the home side.
Nigeria have one issue at present which is finding the back of the net which you may find an odd statement when we require them to score here. However manager Stephen Keshi has been instilling some attacking flair recently and concentrating on going forward which was evident in their 2-2 to Scotland at Craven Cottage over a week ago. Victor Moses is a familiar name we will be relying on in front of goal along with highly rated Emmanuel Emineke.
Mexico v Portugal – 1.30am Friday
Portugal to win and BTTS is 5/1 with SkyBet
Mexico came unstuck a number of days ago when losing to Bosnia but did dispatch Ecuador will ease 3-1 at the end of May and we aren’t quite sure what sort of impact they will have this year. In qualification the Central American side will also take confidence from the absence of Portugal centre back Pepe which should allow them an extra chance of two to find the net.
Manager Miguel Herrera has already named his side – Corona, Rafa Marquez, Francisco Rodriguez, Hector Moreno, Paul Aguilar, Miguel Layun, Jose Juan Vazquez, Andres Guardado, Hector Herrera, Dos Santos, Oribe Peralta.
In Peralta they have an out and out goal scorer and I can see him finding the net tonight. Mexico had a poor qualifying campaign and if it wasn’t for an easy route they would likely be watching the finals at home. I cannot see an average side turning good overnight and I believe they will come unstuck this evening.
Cristiano Ronaldo may well be out of their last two friendly games as he recovers from the leg injuries which have hampered him in recent times, but even with their start player I expect Portugal to have too much for Mexico.
Veloso, Moutinho and Carvalho will be pulling the strings in midfield and all three of them wouldn’t look amiss in most sides this year. Portugal drew 0-0 with stubborn Greece in their other warm up game but when they want to win and win well they can as they showed against Cameroon in March in a 5-1 thrashing and as things get serious I can see a Portugal win in Massachusetts on Friday.
Ghana v South Korea – 12.00pm Monday
Ghana to win and BTTS is 6/1 with SkyBet
Ghana arrive at their third consecutive World Cup hoping for a repeat performance of the one which reached the Quarter Final’s four years ago. Manager James Kwesi Appiah will be expecting an improved performance from the one that lost 1-0 to Holland one week ago. The Black Stars have plenty of firepower in top scorer Asamoah Gyan, Michael Essien and Kevin-Prince Boateng and a victory here looks probable against a South Korea side who have many difficulties of their own.
It hasn’t been a great start for South Korea with the media reporting a group of players suffering from a virus which is sweeping the camp. The illness has forced a number of players to stay out of the planned high intensity training in Miami before they travel the Brazil.
At the end of May they lost to a particularly average Tunisia side and Ghana are likely to have too much for the Asian outfit. The Taeguk Warriors will have to step things up in their final week of planning and I expect them to score and bring back a little bit of the form which saw them win comfortably against Greece in March.
A £10 stake on the treble above will return a gigantic £2100 with SkyBet
