Annoying International Football Betting Thread

[MickeyPaul]

Japan playing I see. Might watch that. No idea how good or bad South Korea are these days but Japan I like at home usually. Yes, they're frustrating but I still like to watch the little buggers with their electric pass and move philosophy. Hopefully they're putting a decent side out - I'll try and find out.

[MickeyPaul]

Well as is often the case those odds have come out all shit and annoying. Japan are actually @ 2.20 bet365 by the way.

[MickeyPaul]

This doesn't sound too promising:

First up for the Blue Samurai is the old rivals, our nearest and dearest, South Korea before we move on to England and Ivory Coast. According to Fifa this will be the 64th official full international between these two, the most recent of which was of course the 3-1 defeat in the East Asian Championships in Tokyo 3 months ago which resulted in showdown talks between Takeshi Okada and the JFA.

That is all water under the bridge now though, and eyes can only be focused forwards on the World Cup. As far as this match goes, whatever line-up Okada puts out I would be hoping to see signs of a cohesiveness and a potent attacking threat, couple with solidity at the back.

This isn’t the time to be pulling up any trees or going gung-ho but it is a time to be finalising all the understanding on the pitch and showing unity and signs of developing well as a squad.

With all that in mind, the result itself won’t be hugely important, but there is a caveat to that. Should the result be a bad defeat, morale will come crashing down with a thud. Similarly a good win may send expectations a bit high.

Winning is always good though, and is a habit which is a nice one to have going into a World Cup, and this is easily the most winnable of Japan’s pre-tournament friendlies. It is almost 5 years since Japan beat South Korea so it’s about time that changed.

Speaking about the choice of opponents ahead of the World Cup, JFA supremo Motoaki Inukai said “It’s the first time in a long time Japan will play South Korea with both teams fielding their best line-ups. It is risky, but if you don’t take those risks with less than a month to go they don’t get that sense of what the World Cup is all about.”

“I don’t get too nervous about friendly results. The coach wants to play the top teams and feels that if we lose then tough luck.

“Before the 2006 World Cup we won lots of games and the Japanese media were jumping up and down and saying we could get to the semi-finals or even further — and look what happened.”

“What I want from Japan is to go out and try to win every match”

Okada had the following brief comments about the challenge ahead rather than this specific match…”All we can do now is go out there and play to our abilities. We are faced with a huge challenge ahead, so the team has to form a united front and go forward.”

Japan v. South Korea Preview - Japan

[MickeyPaul]

So, it sounds like they're fielding a 1st choice 11 but I'm not liking the sound of their record against the Koreans. On the back of recent 1-3 defeat to South Korea in Tokyo. I suppose I have to ditch the Japan bet already.

East Asian Champs – Defeat for Japan against Korea, but China take the honours - Japan

I'll have a think. Maybe 1st goal after 29th min @ 2.0 or the draw HT @ 2.10 - I'm away to read that report first.

[MickeyPaul]

Good lord. Things sound bad for Japan just now. Fans booing them against Hong Kong I'm reading. They dominated and won 3-0 but it appears they are reeeeally struggling in attack (they've always been reeeally toothless for me in that area - sooo timid).

Oh, that was two penalties and two red cards in their match with Korea a few months back. They do seem to hate each other. I want to watch this even more now so.... a wee interest bet would be nice. I'm still reading.

[MickeyPaul]

The more I read the worse things sound for Japan here. A comment on that fella's blog regarding the lineups:

Midfielders Junichi Inamoto of Kawasaki Frontale and Daisuke Matsui of Grenoble, as well as forward Keiji Tamada of Nagoya Grampus and defender Atsuto Uchida of Kashima Antlers are expected to miss Monday’s game due to fitness problems. Bummer.
So much for first time in 12 years both teams will be at full power!

Deary me.

[MickeyPaul]

Aaaaand, Japan booed again in a 0-3 defeat at home to Serbia last month. I'm beginning to think it's Korea I should be chancing here.

They're @ 1.61 on the double chance bet365

[llmb0611]

and let me remind you that serbia played with a team made of players that play just in serbian league...so players like vidic-manu ivanovic-chelsea kolarov-lazio subotic-dortmund stankovic-inter pantelic-ajax and many other players didn't play in this game, and they still won easily 3-0...i'm not so sure about japan, i think the odds on korea are a bit to high...

[MickeyPaul]

Yip - everything sounds dreadful for Japan and S Korea sound a useful enough side. Anyone know what kind of side South Africa will be fielding? I might fancy them too.

[llmb0611]

i don't know abouth south africa, but i watched bulgaria against belgium, since i've bet on belgium. bulgaria was 1-0 up and they lost 2-1 with goals in 90th and 92nd min. bulgaria have a few absences, berbatov said goodbye to the national team...but i don't know anything about the africans. i know they had a few problems with their national asocciation, and benni mccarthy, who was their bes player was out of the national team, but now they changed the coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira is back, and so are their best players, and i think they are a team that can beat Bulgaria today... but wait if somebody else gives you any news about the home team...

[llmb0611]

for me this game is a NO BET, bulgaria still have some good players, like stilliyan petrov from Villa or bojinov from parma, and some other players, and south africa coach still has 30 players on his list and will mix the team, so it's not sure who will play today...

[MickeyPaul]

I was impressed by South Africa in the Confederations Cup a while back is all. They play some excellent football and I thought it might be a really tough game for Bulgaria. They lost a friendly at Poland too.

I'm just looking for some small interest bets to be honest. Friendlies are never something I get involved in too seriously.

edit: thank you by the way, llmb.

[7HEGR1MR3AP3R]

This fucking lumax has backed Australia to bt NZ and theyre 1-0 down

[MickeyPaul]

The Aussies never lose at home, Grim and especially not to NZ - just watch them go mental on their hobbit asses.

[MickeyPaul]

I've gone for S Korea here btw. Japan better be shit.