Tuesday, April 08, 2008

South Africa is in the World Cup

I didn't realize this until now, but appartently the World Cup host country gets an automatic bid into the tournament. I guess that makes sense, and you really can't say that it fair. The locals want to watch, root for and bet on a local team. And the local team should be damn competative. In 2006, Germnay go a lot farther than any odds makers where saying they could. Yes, I'm proud to have bet on them in the 2006 World Cup to win their group. They were favored, but I bet big and cleaned up. Unfortunately, I stopped betting on them after that.

In 2010, I'll probably place a bet on the South African team to come out of their group, if not win it. It always seems like the home teams do better than people would expect them to. Honestly, I'm not sure how home teams don't get more respect. They don't have to travel or deal with jet lag. They don't have to sleep in hotels for weeks on end. They should be familiar with even field that they play on. And they should be surrounded by family and friends.

Anyway, the good news for South Africa is that they are in the World Cup. I think more than a few people will bet on them to come out of the group too. This guy probably will. After all, I'm sure to bet on the World Cup. Might as well bet a home team.