2010 FIFA World Cup Odds: Chile
Written by Jack Jones
Chile will be making their ninth trip to the finals as they head to South Africa to participate in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which opens on June 11th. It will be their first appearance at the finals since 1998, and this team has plenty of talent to make some noise in the field of 32. If you want the 2010 World Cup odds on each team and their chances of winning it all, then head over to Sportsbook.com where they have lines for every team. If you want to sign up and bet on a team, then they’ll reward you with up to a $100 bonus on your initial deposit.
Chile at +6600 starts the World Cup in Group H. A $100 wager would net you $6,600 if the Chileans were to hoist the Jules Rimet Trophy come tournament’s end. Waiting for them in this tough group is the pre-tournament favorites Spain (+400), along with Switzerland (+20000) and Honduras (+50000). They will likely need to beat both Honduras and Switzerland on June 16th and June 21st respectively, to advance. Chile closes with Spain on June 25th and can’t get caught looking ahead.
Chile was one of the 13 original countries to play in the 1930 World Cup. There they would record wins over Mexico and France before bowing out to Argentina in their deciding group game. The Chileans wouldn’t return to the finals until 1950, which saw another first-round exit after 2-0 losses to both Spain and England before throttling USA 5-2 in their final match, one in which they were only playing for pride. Chile’s best performance came in 1962 as hosts, where they took care of Switzerland and Italy, with the match against the Italians known as the ‘Battle of Santiago’ where police help was needed after the crowd was angered by what they had seen on the pitch. They would go on to finish in third-place, their best result to date. After three first-round exits in 1966, 1974 and 1982, they would get disqualified in 1994 before returning to the finals in 1998, their most recent World Cup appearance. There, Chile would draw all three matches in the first round before falling to Brazil by a 4-1 margin in the second round.
La Roja delivered a second-place finish in South America qualifying, their best-ever result. Amazingly, Chile finished just one point behind Brazil. They qualified for South Africa with a 4-2 win over Columbia with one game remaining, and finished qualifying with 10 wins in 18 matches. They had 32 goals for and 22 against, and won 16 of their 33 points away from Santiago. Their 10 wins were more than any of their continental neighbors, and their 32 goals were the second-highest total. Concerning is the 7 goals they gave up in a pair of matches with Brazil.
Boss Marcelo Bielsa is an Argentinean who took over in 2007. He coached his home nation to a first round exit at the Korea/Japan World Cup in 2002, but will be given a shot with Chile this time around. Gone are the days of the famous forward combo of Marcelo Salas and Ivan Zamorano, but Bielsa has a skilled group of players that have what it takes to make a deep run in South Africa. With an average age around 23-years-old, the Chileans are inexperienced but they make up for it with a load of young talent. Series A striker Alexis Sanchez is a hitman up front, while finding him in the midfield are the likes of Sporting Lisbon’s Matias Fernandez and Al Ain’s Jorge Valdivia. Also at striker is Humberto Suazo, who was a force in qualifying by leading this side with 10 of their 32 goals. West Brom defender Gonzalo Jara along with former Liverpool winger Mark Gonzales are also notable names you will be hearing from at the finals.
With so much offensive firepower, La Roja has a shot to make some serious noise at the 2010 World Cup. Their 32 goals in 18 qualifying matches is impressive, and they have loads of talent up front to keep finding the back of the net. Defense is their Achilles heel, and giving up 22 goals during qualifying is a major concern. Chile should be able to score enough goals to get them through to the knockout stages, but the more complete teams in this field will feast on them later on in the tournament because they struggle at defending their own penalty box.
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