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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.

It may be hard to comprehend that a team that has just won its 18th league and 3rd in 3 years needs to do any sort of rebuilding, but with Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez on their way out of Old Trafford there is definitely going to be a lack of creative talent in the squad.

There are two games from this season that really stand out to me as showing up the cracks in the Manchester Utd Armour, the 4-1 defeat at home to Liverpool and the recent Champions League defeat to Barcelona. Both times Ronaldo failed to show up and both times the Manchester Utd midfield was out classed. The likes of Carrick and Park Ji Sung just aren’t good enough and unless Alex Ferguson has some big signings up his sleeve Utd will struggle next season.

I can see all the Utd fans jumping up and and down chucking stuff at their computers as they read this saying “what about Giggs, Scholes, Rooney and Berbatov”. Giggs had a great season there is no doubt about that, he didn’t win the PFA Player of the year for nothing. But he is 36 now and there is now way he can keep it up for much longer.

Scholes is 35 and as far as I am concerned he hasn’t been the at his best for a few years now. Berbatov is already whinging about the rotation system and hasn’t been the success that many people expected. Sowing flashes of brilliance one moment and then damn right laziness the next.

Then there is Rooney. Only a few years ago he was seen as the saviour of English football, skillful, strong, ran at defenders with pace and most importantly he scored goals. He still gets his fair share, don’t get me wrong 12 premiership goals is not to be sniffed at, but it is up there with the likes of Frank Lampard (who gets his goals from midfield), Kevin Davies and Dirk Kuyt and can hardly be seen as prolific, and  we rarely see the rest of his dynamic game that made him such a devastating young talent at Everton. People will say “he is a better all round player now with a greater understanding of the game”. But it is sad to see a player that as such a natural abilty to go forward and cause problems sitting out on the left of midfield, being forced to do his turn defending.

There is a concesus among Manchester Utd fans that the young talent at the club will see them through next season and that they have a similar squad of youngsters as Arsenal, but I just don’t see it. There isn’t a Cesc Fabregas or Theo Walcott coming through, not one that looks like they will be the next superstar to come off the Utd production line.

The only plus point for Manchester Utd is that they undoubtedly have the best coach in world football in Alex Ferguson, who has built a number of successful squads over his 26 years in charge. It is because of this that betfair have them as $2.62 favourites to win their fourth straight title. But can he really do it one last time?