I thought the World Cup was never going to start. The long, painful, countdown is over and I can enjoy a month of international football.
As a general rule I bet against the favourite so my tips for the tournament are Argentina and Italy. Both have very tough groups but I expect them to come through. Players in the Italian team are embroiled in a match fixing scandal, but I don't think that it will necessarily affect their performance. At 8-1 you can get a decent return on both teams.
Outsiders, I fancy Spain and the Czech Republic. Spain have loads of talant in their team and they cannot continue to flop in major tournaments. Czech Republic have a good team, reached the semi's in Euro 2004 and at 25-1 each way represent great value.
The opening match pits Germany against Costa Rica. I know that footballing convention dictates that you can never write off the Germans, but I think that this is the one tournament where you can. History shows that the home team always does well, but I think Germany may be the exception that proves the rule.
