World Cup 2010 Blog Day 4

Written by Joe Berg Thursday, 10 June 2010 11:25

England World Cup Blog

 Hello. You look good today.

So, there’s just one more sleep to go before it all kicks off, and I’m getting a bit excited. I even missed dinner last night as I opted to watch BBC 3’s World Cup’s Most Shocking Moments instead of going to the shop before closing time to buy any food. In case you’re wondering, the winning moment was Zidane’s kebab-house nutting of Materazzi. No surprises there, then. 

The World Cup for me usually means two things. 1) England disappointing me. 2) Winning decent sums of money betting on the early round matches and group winners.

This year, however, it will mean neither of those, as for the first time since I started watching football (back in about 1989-90), I’m going into a tournament truly believing there’s no way in the world that England will go all the way. We’re just not good enough. Obviously I hope I’m wrong, but at least when/if we do go out fairly early, it won’t shock me or reduce me to man tears.

And on top of that, I won’t be betting on any games, groups, number of bookings, or who will kick-off the match. I’m through with gambling. 

If you read my introduction post, you’ll remember that on Monday I was sat at the Somali-run internet café that I suspected was a front of something more sinister, watching live tennis scores update on screen as I had the majority of my rent money resting on the outcomes. Well, I can tell you that the outcomes didn’t go my way and I lost my rent. I also lost a chunk of my flatmates’ rent that was sitting in my account as they’d gone on holiday and left me with the duty of transferring the whole lot over to our landlord. This wasn’t good. This was very very bad. I wanted to jump out of a 10th floor window. I’d done it again (losing money I couldn’t afford to lose, not jumping out of a 10th floor window).

I’m 26 years old, 27 very shortly. That’s an age far too advanced for a life like this. I can’t be having nervous breakdowns caused by spoilt, middle-class tennis players. 

So, after managing to sort out the majority of this month’s rent through advanced work payments and loans, I’m now ready to seek professional help and get this sorted out. I’ll keep you updated, unless you’re not interested, in which case please leave a comment and say, “Joe, I’m not interested.” 

Not being able to bet on the World Cup is making me sad today as I was all set to fill my pocket with winnings. Argentina to pick up nine points from their group games is a tasty 19/10. In a group that contains Greece, Nigeria and Korea, this should be a given. 

Probably the easiest money of the competition is for New Zealand not to pick up a single point. Ladbrokes are offering evens for this. Get on it, and when it wins, buy me a drink. Also worth making the same bet for North Korea in their group of Brazil, Portugal and the Ivory Coast, although you’ll only get 8/13 on this. 

Slovenia to qualify from Group C is a generous 2/1. Fortunately, I already lumped a few hundred on this a couple of months ago, so I expect to be picking up some readies in a couple of weeks’ time. 

And the outside bet that I was tempted to get on was Holland to lift the trophy for the first time ever at 9/1. I don’t know exactly why, I’ve just got a feeling. 

I’d be interested to hear your betting tips for the tournament. I might not be putting my money where my mouth is anymore, but I’m still partial to a little talk/debate on the subject.
 

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