Oddsbay brings you all of the World Cup betting free picks and other soccer handicapping information you need.  The group stages are over, and the knockout rounds get underway on Saturday with two games.

URUGUAY VS. SOUTH KOREA 7:00 AM PACIFIC

South Korea was a longshot to advance to the knockout stage from Group B, but here they are.  Everyone remembers South Korea’s 2002 World Cup run (which they co-hosted with Japan) when they eliminated several highly ranked European teams (Italy, Spain and Portugal) before finally falling to Germany.  This is the first time that a South Korean team has ever advanced to the knockout rounds in a World Cup held outside of Asia.

They do boast a good deal of World Cup experience, and are led by Manchester United’s Park Ji-Sung who serves as team captain.  South Korea always receives high marks for their work ethic.  They play hard for 90 minutes and don’t quit.  But that might not be enough to get them the victory here against a Uruguay team that could be one of the ‘sleeper’ surprises of the tournament.

Uruguay is flying beneath the radar, but they’re a very good team.  They made it through the group stage without conceding a goal while scoring four.  And that’s basically the premise behind this handicap—South Korea is a good team, but Uruguay simply has more talent and ability across the board.

We look for Uruguay to take care of business within 90 minutes and will play this UNDER the total.

PLAY URUGUAY -107 OVER SOUTH KOREA
PLAY URUGUAY/SOUTH KOREA UNDER 2 -114

USA VS. GHANA  11:30 AM PACIFIC

It’s already been quite a dramatic World Cup for the US team.  It began with a highly anticipated opening game against England, where Robert Green’s goaltending miscue handed them a draw.  That was followed by an amazing 2^nd half comeback against Slovenia, with a horrible call by the referee keeping them from an improbable win.  To top it off, the Americans were 3 minutes from elimination against Algeria when Landon Donovan’s game winning goal instead vaulted them to the top of the group standings.

No matter what happens from this point, the US team deserves a lot of credit.  American fans didn’t have much to cheer about in the 2006 World Cup, and their team not only failed to advance to the second round but lacked passion and intensity.  That’s definitely not a problem with the 2010 US team.  Landon Donovan has become a great team leader, and Tim Howard is one of the best goalkeepers in the world.  The biggest problem for the US is their backline defense, but if they can improve in that area they’ve got a great chance of a long run in this tournament.

Ghana did well just to make it to this point, but they’re not a very impressive team.  They’ll obviously have a good deal of support from the live crowd in South Africa, but it’s doubtful that will rattle the Americans.  Both of Ghana’s goals during the group stage came on penalty kicks, and they simply don’t have the offensive firepower to match up with the US.  Their unimaginative attack also serves to take pressure off of the US defense.  The US has shown a tendency to not make anything easy, but we’ll look for them to win the game within 90 minutes.

PLAY USA +158 OVER GHANA
PLAY GHANA/USA UNDER 2 -106

This entry was posted on Friday, June 25th, 2010 at 1:47 pm and is filed under articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.