World Cup Spread Betting

It’s been a weekend of pure drama at World Cup 2010 in South Africa and that’s only off the pitch. The French are in meltdown, England in disarray and as one pundit put it the Italians are looking to join in as well but that’s only because of their results on the pitch.
It all kicked off on Thursday night with Nicolas Anelka, after he launched a foul mouth assault on French coach Raymond Domenech during half time of their match against Mexico which the French lost 2-0. Anelka then missed training on Saturday and later in the day a statement was issued by the French Football Federation saying that Anelka’s comments to the coach were totally unacceptable. It then went on to add that due to the player’s refusal to apologise for his actions the FFF had no option but to exclude Anelka from the squad. The decision was made by Jean Pierre Escalettes who is president of the FFF and he had the agreement of the coach and the rest of the official delegation present at the meeting. The meeting was also attended by French captain Patrice Evra who it now transpires didn’t agree with the decision as was seen from the reaction of the French players on Sunday. Evra accused a traitor in the camp of leaking the story to the media He said “the problem for France is not Anelka but the traitor among us. We must eliminate the traitor because he wants to hurt the team”.
So Anelka was sent home and Sunday dawned and the situation only got worse for the French when the story broke of a training ground bust up between Evra and the fitness coach Robert Duverne, who Evra had identified as the snake in the grass. The pair had to be separated on the training ground by Domenech and the fitness coach stormed off hurling his FIFA accreditation into the bushes as he went. He later announced that he was quitting the squad. The players then boarded the team bus and had a meeting with Domenech who then appeared and read a statement from the players which said that without exception all the players disagreed with the decision to send Anelka home, that the decision had been made without consultation and based on the facts as reported by the newspaper. It also said that the squad had not been protected by the FFF. Domenech said he thought he had handled the matter internally until the story broke in the papers. The French are now in a position where their fate is out of their hands with a draw between Mexico and Uruguay dumping them out at the group stage.
Meanwhile over at camp England things are not rosy in the garden either after their dismal draw with Algeria on Friday night. Something is definitely wrong, with the English media on the hunt to find out what. Several interviews from the more established players seem to hint at disagreement between Fabio Capello and his players who don’t seem happy with the system employed by the Italian both on a tactical front and on a general atmosphere around the camp front. When David James was told that Capello seems to think that the team is playing with fear he replied “Does he, OK”. It was more the way in which it was said than what he said that raised suspicions that all is not well. On Sunday John Terry held a press conference saying the squad was going to have a clear the air meeting with Capello and things would be said that might upset him and some of the players also but if it does so what. He also said that the team was playing with no passion. They now need to stick together and get a win in their final match. On Joe Cole he said that he thought that together with Wayne Rooney, Cole had the ability to unlock defences. When he was asked about the situation with club mate Anelka he said he seems to have been sent home for voicing his opinion and that some of England’s players could be sent home after tonight. I can’t help but wonder why John Terry was the one giving the press conference and not Steven Gerrard who is supposed to be England captain. All is not well in camp England I fear or the French one either for that matter. Stay tuned for the next episode because this world cup could turn out to be quite exciting after all.
So a very eventful few days and that was off the pitch. On the pitch on Friday Serbia beat the much fancied Germans 1-0 after Klose was sent off. USA came back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 and could have won it but for a disallowed goal and Algeria got that draw with England.
Saturday saw Netherlands book their place in the next round after beating Japan 1-0. Ghana and Australia drew 1-1 and Denmark beat Cameroon 2-1
In Sundays games Paraguay beat Slovakia 2-0 and then one of the results of the tournament so far with lowly New Zealand holding the mighty Italians to a 1-1 draw. Mighty performance from the All Whites who could teach some of the bigger teams a little about team spirit and togetherness. The final game on Sunday saw the Brazilians progress to the next round after beating Ivory Coast 3-1. Kaka was sent off in this one very harshly in my view and once again FIFA will probably be found wanting when it comes to rescinding the red card. Let’s hope Kader Kieta gets the same punishment that Rivaldo got at the last world cup for simulation. Until FIFA show some strong punishments been handed out for this sort of cheating it will continue unabated.