Venue: Johannesburg – JSC, South Africa
As always, the host nation will play in the opening match of the 2010 World Cup. This first game in the month long festival of football will be one of two Group A matches played on the 11th of June after the opening ceremony, which will feature a concert with stars like Shakira and the Black Eyed Peas as well as appearances from past and present football legends. Once all that is out the way, the football begins.
The match between South Africa and Mexico will be played at 4pm local time in Johannesburg.
Even though Mexico have a much richer World Cup history than South Africa, and are a good, if not outstanding team, the fact that South Africa are the host nation may factor in a lot of people’s predictions for this match.
The teams have only met twice before – once in 2000 and once in 2005. Mexico won the first 4-2, but in the second meeting five years ago South Africa won 2-1.
Odds for the result of this game are fairly close, with prices for the outright winner around 2/1 for South Africa and 13/10 for Mexico, with the draw at 11/5.
There is money to be made predicting the correct score of this game. As some examples, a 1-0 win for South Africa will get you 7/1, with 11/2 for the same scoreline with Mexico as the victors. The boring 0-0 draw nobody wants to see in the opening game? That is priced at 11/2.
If you want to look at serious money, South Africa winning 4-0 will get you 100/1, or, slightly less outrageous, Mexico winning 3-0 is 25/1.
Prediction
While Mexico are stronger on paper, South Africa are working hard to prepare for the cup and have the home advantage. I could easily see South Africa scoring the first goal, propelled by the home support and being involved in the most important game of their careers.
Mexico would be unlikely not to fight back from this, and as potentially the best team in the group will have the strength to come back with at least one goal.
Prediction is therefore South Africa at half time, match ending in a 1-1 draw. This half-time/full-time result (South Africa/Draw) is currently offered at 12-1. The 1-1 draw is at 11/2.
