WC2014 day 8 – The morning after

Suarez. It had to be him and it was. He has a lot of faults and has done some terrible things in the past but he turned that Uruguay team from a useless bunch against Costa Rica into a team that you probably don’t want to be drawn against in the next phase. England seemed to surrender some of the initiative when they got back to 1-1 and could have tried to keep their rhythm up to keep Uruguay defending deep.

Colombia won again and people seem to be very impressed with them. From about 75 minutes they were defending very deep, inviting pressure and against a better team that will just not work. Be interesting to see how they get on in the knockouts.

Just 1 draw from the 3 yesterday and if Suarez hadn’t scored that late goal this would have been back in profit.

Yesterdays results

19.06.2014 – Colombia v Ivory Coast – DRAW @ 3.49 with Pinnacle LOST -1

19.06.2014 – England v Uruguay– DRAW @ 3.69 with Pinnacle LOST -1

19.06.2014 – Japan v Greece – DRAW @ 3.50 with Pinnacle WON +2.5

1/7 :: -3.5

Todays bets

NONE

20 Jun, 14 | Posted in: World Cup | Comments Closed

WC2014 day 7 – The morning after

Got the Spain v Chile match all wrong. I really did not think Chile could play that well but their style of play was perfect against an out of sorts Spain. Australia seemed to get a fair bit of joy down the wings against Chile and with a very small defence this seemed a good tactic. Spain just kept going down the centre all the time and could not get their passing going. I wonder if sometime in the second half Del Bosque wondered why he had not taken Llorente or Navas with him to Brazil. Llorente scored more than Torres and Villa last season and would have given them a completely different option. If your team is not clicking in a short format tournament like the World Cup then you do need some sort of plan B to bail you out and at least raise confidence. Belgium bringing on Fellaini to score that header is the obvious option and has completely changed their fortunes.

Did not see Croatia but glad they won and that sets up a big match against Mexico to progress.

Had to completely revise my opinions now and will not be betting as much pre-match but rather waiting to see how a match pans out. The draws will not be affected by this though and am going for all 3 matches today to be a draw. Need at least 1 to hit.

Yesterdays results

NONE

0/4 :: -4

Todays bets

19.06.2014 – Colombia v Ivory Coast – DRAW @ 3.49 with Pinnacle

19.06.2014 – England v Uruguay– DRAW @ 3.69 with Pinnacle

19.06.2014 – Japan v Greece – DRAW @ 3.50 with Pinnacle

WC2014 day 6 – The morning after

Two pretty disappointing performances yesterday from Brazil and Belgium. In the end Belgium were able to triumph but that was thanks to Felliani. I actually think they could do with him playing the full 90 mins in that deep lying midfield role doing the simple things. Winning the ball, playing simple passes and probably committing loads of fouls. He might not be in the best 4 or 5 midfield players that they have but he would give them better balance and also if they need the option of him getting forward he can.

International football is completely different to club football and players do not gel as well as they do at clubs as they don’t play as well together. This means that other aspects of play become more important such as free kicks and even crosses as it does not require a deep understanding between the players to do successfully.

Neymar had a fair few bad games for Barcelona last season and we saw him do it again last night. His confidence is not what it was and it’s a lot for him to carry that team when he is not on the top of his game. I do believe frustration will get the better of him at some stage and he will pick up one more yellow. I really can’t see Brazil winning this and I worry about the impact of them going out in the last 16 or the quarters. The protests will increase as they will have wasted all this public money on a World Cup they won’t even have done well in. Big Phil makes some odd decisions and he will surely be heavily criticised as well. Such a shame Felipe Luis did not go to the World Cup as he is a better left back than Marcelo and Marcelo could even play in midfield, although he looks to be out of sorts at the moment. That own goal in the first game looks to have dented his confidence. How many of the Brazilian team are coming into this tournament on the back of a good season?

Spain play again today and as I said on the day 4 round up that price of 1.75 on them was way too high. A best price of 1.57 now and I can see a comfortable solid win from them.  Cameroon v Croatia will be interesting and is a very important match as it’s a must win for Croatia really based on Mexico drawing last night and they will need to win both matches.

Yesterdays results

NONE

0/4 :: -4

Todays bets

NONE

18 Jun, 14 | Posted in: World Cup | Comments Closed

WC2014 day 5 – The morning after

Yesterday was all about not watching the late game and recovering some of the lost sleep. Portugal made too many individual errors against Germany and they are the perfect team to crush them. A last 16 meeting for Germany and Bosnia looks pretty likely and that should be a decent match as they are the kind of team that could overrun Germany.

Get to see Belgium today and then back around with the other teams. I think ti will be interesting to see if any players who have been booked in the first match and are about to win their second game will get booked. Take Neymar tonight, if Brazil are winning comfortably they will have 6 points with just a game against Cameroon to come. Neymar gets booked and he just sits out that match and otherwise runs the risk of a suspension in the knockout games that would be such a blow for Brazil. Obviously been some money on this as Bet Victor have cut him to 2.5.

Yesterdays results

16.06.2014 – Ghana v USA – DRAW @ 3.42 with Pinnacle LOST -1

0/4 :: -4

Todays bets

NONE

17 Jun, 14 | Posted in: World Cup | Comments Closed

WC2014 day 4 – The morning after

Two wins for Europe yesterday and a loss for Bosnia against Argentina. I couldn’t manage to stay up for the whole of that game and only saw the first half. The early goal changed the game and meant you don’t get a proper perspective of how Argentina will play but they did not look great. Bosnia seemed to do what they wanted in possession and the defence did not look solid. Also Messi is not quite right. He played less total games this season (46) than he has since 07-08 and also scored less total goals than he has since 08-09. That extra burst of pace that took him between players is not quite as amazing as it was. He’s still an amazing player but it’s just he was even more amazing a year ago. Players who have that explosive acceleration has suffer through injuries and losing it from their game makes them nothing like the player they were. Michael Owen is one of the best examples of that but also Torres is another who lost his turn of pace and is now just a plodder. Maybe Messi is worried about his hamstring but he lost the ball in the first half too many times for him.

I’m siding with the European teams in this world cup and not had much to make me change my mind. Interesting those comments that came out from Barcelona late last season about Tata Martinez’s coaching methods and how the players criticised them as being from the past. Not sure if the South American teams are as well prepared as the European teams or if the coaches are as good. If you think about the best coaches in this World Cup and looked for the top 3 you’d probably be choosing 3 from Europe.

The reaction to Spain’s loss to the Dutch seems a little extreme and the price of 1.75 is very big. Chile lost 6 times in 16 qualifying matches, wobbled against Australia and defensively are very suspect.

Where have the draws gone? Crazy not had any so far.

Yesterdays results

15.06.2014 – Switzerland v Ecuador – DRAW @ 3.26 with Pinnacle LOST -1

0/3 :: -3

Todays bets

16.06.2014 – Ghana v USA – DRAW @ 3.42 with Pinnacle