With the World Cup right around the corner, we’ll be handicapping the field and assessing their chances of winning the tournament. Most importantly, we’ll look at the World Cup betting odds to determine whether each team is a good value. We’ll be starting with the favored teams and working our way down the list over the next couple of weeks. After that we’ll recommend specific betting positions on futures and prop bets, and once the tournament starts we’ll have World Cup betting free picks every day. Make Oddsbay your home for the best soccer betting free picks and handicapping information anywhere!
Argentina won the World Cup in 1978 and 1986, though they’ve struggled somewhat in International play. They haven’t won an International title of any sort since the Copa America in 1993, and even though they reached the quarterfinals in the 2006 World Cup given their expectations and talent level that was something of a disappointment. Of the top teams in the 2010 competition, Argentina may be the most intriguing. Can a talented but underachieving roster join forces with a soccer icon with virtually no coaching experience—who also happens to be borderline insane—and reach World Cup glory? We’re about to find out.
In terms of talent, Argentina ranks among the strongest teams in the field. Their frontline is arguably the best of any 2010 World Cup entrant and they boast 2009 World Player of the Year Lionel Messi. Messi is considered by many to be the best individual player in the world, and he’s expected to deliver a World Cup title back to Argentina. He’s only 22, so he’s only going to get better. In addition to Messi, Argentina has a deep roster full of players from the top European Leagues including midfielder and team captain Javier Mascherano (Liverpool) and Carlos Tevez (Manchester City).
There are some concerns about the team’s defensive play, but any potential liability on the field pales in comparison to the huge question mark on the sidelines. After former coach Alfio Basile resigned following a 1-0 loss to Chile in a 2008 World Cup qualifier, the country’s soccer hierarchy turned to Argentina’s most celebrated soccer player—Diego Maradona. Despite having no significant coaching experience, the move was made to give a talented team a degree of ‘attitude’ and swagger.
Maradona can charitably be called a ‘character’ and less charitably called a ‘nut’. Maradona is a soccer god in Argentina, and was crucial in the country’s 1986 World Cup victory. Since that pinnacle, his life has had ups and downs that Mike Tyson would consider insane (Maradona, incidentally, once interviewed Tyson on his popular TV show ‘La Noche del 10’). In 1991, Maradona was suspended by FIFA for over a year after failing a drug test—not for steroids, but for cocaine. In 1994, he failed another drug test and was sent home after testing positive for the stimulant ephedrine.
After he retired, things become even direr for Maradona and he’s battled at various points a cocaine addiction, alcoholism and weight gain. He’s reportedly tamed his chemical demons, though despite a stomach stapling operation in 2004 his weight is still an issue. He more closely resembles adult film actor Ron Jeremy than a legendary professional athlete. He’s also suffered a heart attack, liver damage and had to have facial surgery in 2007 after his dog bit him in the face.
Maradona remained in the public eye all the while, becoming a popular TV host in Argentina. Despite this fame, he resented the media’s attempts to pry into his personal life and once fired an air rifle at a group of reporters that was hounding him. And if all of this didn’t make him a controversial enough figure, he sports tattoos of Fidel Castro on his left leg and of Che Guevara on his right arm. In 2002, he donated the Cuban royalties from his autobiography to ‘the Cuban people and Fidel.’
Former teammate Jorge Valdano did a good job of summing up the bundle of contradictions that is Maradona with this quote:
“He is someone many people want to emulate, a controversial figure, loved, hated, who stirs great upheaval, especially in Argentina... Stressing his personal life is a mistake. Maradona has no peers inside the pitch, but he has turned his life into a show, and is now living a personal ordeal that should not be imitated.”
Things haven’t gone particularly well since he took the reins as Argentina’s coach. Criticisms have ranged from ‘a lack of organizational skills’ to an inability to forge a team into a cohesive unit. Others have complained that Maradona’s system is a bad fit for his superstar Lionel Messi and does little to facilitate his prodigious offensive playmaking skills. Still others suggest that Maradona is just flat out crazy and—unimpeachable soccer pedigree as a player notwithstanding—is simply not qualified for the job. Maradona has responded to this criticism as you’d expect—during one press conference he told the media to "suck it and keep on sucking it" which not surprisingly got him in hot water with FIFA.
For good or bad, however, he’s the coach. The hope is that despite all of the chaos behind the scenes when the World Cup begins he’ll be able to imbue Argentina’s team with the sort of confident swagger with which he played. For his part, he’s promised to run nude through the streets of Buenos Aires if his team wins the World Cup. He also made headlines with a public proclamation that while cigars and champagne are off limits to Argentina's players until after the World Cup they are allowed to have sex.
As we noted at the outset, this may not be the ideal situation for a World Cup contender but will make for some very interesting theatre. It also gives us a good opportunity to play Argentina to win the competition. They may be the most talented team of any World Cup competitor, but are only the #4 soccer betting favorite at +680 behind Brazil, Spain and England. At this price they’re a steal. They’ve got the talent to win the competition and the addition of the volatile Maradona to the mix could be just what the doctor ordered. There’s never a shortage of teams that have plenty of talent, but play without passion or intensity. That won’t be a problem with Argentina, and it just could take them to a World Cup crown.
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