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The 19th Soccer World Cup in South Africa is nearly upon us and the whole world is slowly becoming struck down with football fever. Millions and millions of people will be watching the opening fixture every one of them carrying with them a mass of hopes and dreams. But not every team will have what it takes to lift the iconic trophy, and ultimately only one team will.

Here at Sportsbetblog.com.au we are going to look all the likely winners and some of the countries with something of an outside chance, so that you know where best to place your free bet from Sportsbet

England

As with every other Englishman around the world I began 2010 full of hope and optimism. England cruised through their qualifying group unbeaten. Wayne Rooney is scoring goals for fun. Steven Gerrard is fit and in John Terry we have one of the best center backs in the business. But as always something just had to go wrong for us and burst the big bubble that was beginning to build.

The last few months has been full of nothing but controversy for the England squad with John Terry and Ashley Cole sleeping with anything in a skirt and an orange spray tan, including team mates wives, that has resulted in nothing but bad press. Then there was the amazing news that super boss Fabio Cappello was being spied on during a friendly game against Egypt as the rest of the world tries to find out what makes him a true football genius. All of this has come on top of the news that Rooney is injured and will miss the rest of the season and could struggle to be fit for the first game in South Africa. While talisman David Beckham is definately out after snapping his achilles tendon playing for Italian side AC Milan.

COULD ANYTHING ELSE GO WRONG?

But despite the down sides to the year I still think we have a serious chance of pulling something out of our backsides at this World Cup. Rooney swears that he will make it, Gerrard is coming in to good form and in Cappello we have a coach that seems to be able to get our players to produce their club form at the international level, which has been a major problem for so long in English football.

In a recent interview with ‘Soccer International’ magazine Cappello also revealed the team has been practising the dreaded penalties, “We practice penalties a lot. For the finals, we have time to decide who will take the penalties. I will get them to practice. But practice is easy without a crowd!”

So if JT can keep it in his pants for just at least six months I feel that we maybe in with a chance and the bookies seem to agree with Centrebet making them third favourites at $6.50.

If you had of looked at the betting markets for the English Premier League just over two weeks ago, you’d have seen that Manchester United were about as short as you can get in a race with 19 other challengers and a dozen rounds yet to be played. They were seven points clear of their nearest rivals Liverpool and to make matters even more difficult for their opponents they had a game in hand as well.

How could last year’s champions of Europe possibly lose from there?

Flash forward to the present and we have been given a great example of how quickly things can turn around in sport. It all began with Liverpool’s 4-1 thumping of Man U in Manchester, a game bookies had given Benitez’s men little chance of winning. It was followed up the very next weekend with Liverpool hammering top 4 candidate Aston Villa 5-0, and the shock loss of United to Fulham – their first back-t-back loss in the EPL since 2005.

All of a sudden Liverpool’s rich vein of form has seen them firm from 11/1 in to 5/2 in just two weeks. Manchester remain favourites at 4/11 as they are one point clear of Liverpool with a game in hand over the rest of the field. Chelsea are in third spot a further 3 points back.

So what has gone wrong for Man U…and what has gone right for Liverpool?

Liverpool’s Resurgent Combination Up Front

The key for Liverpool over the past few weeks, has been the partnership between home town hero Steven Gerrard, and the prodigiously talented Spaniard Fernando Torres. Gerrard has been in imperious form of late scoring 6 goals in his last 3 games and is putting himself forward as a candidate for FIFA Footballer Of The Year.

His combination with Torres definitely raises the performance of the rest of the team, and this has been obvious since the Spaniard’s return from injury. With such strikepower up front the rest of the team understands that if they do their job well, the goals will come and over the past few weeks they have delivered on this.

The Problem For Manchester

Having assumed such a commanding lead at the top of the table, all the talk over the past few weeks had been about the possibility of them claiming an unprecedented five titles in the one season. This may have led them to take their eye of the ball so to speak.

In interviews with many of the players after their defeat to Fulham, there was a definite air of surprise about what was happening, which is often an indication that some complacency had slipped in to their camp.

Obviously they are trying to manage their resources in their bid to claim Cup victories in Europe and at home, but they will need to pick up their act once the season regular resumes at the conclusion of the upcoming round of international friendlies.

Manchester’s Opponents Will Be On Liverpool’s Side

They play Aston Villa straight up, with Martin O’Neill’s men currently lying three points outside of the top four. A loss to Manchester would put a huge hole in their drive to qualify for the Champions league next year and will give them the greatest possible incentive to win.

Then there is the fact that the majority of teams in the competition (with the obvious exception being Everton) would rather see Liverpool claim the title, and you have a situation where all of Manchester’s opponents will be gunning for their head.

The next couple of months are going to make for some very interesting viewing.

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