Upon further review, the World Cup is wide open. At least that is how things appear after a shocking loss by defending champion Germany (to Mexico), a tie for Argentina against a small island nation in the middle of the North Atlantic (Iceland), a draw for Brazil against a country that historically sees every conflict as somewhat of a tie (Switzerland), and a loss for Columbia against a nation better known for baseball than futbol (that would be Japan).
Oh, and they are using replay review, which is pleasing the Swedes more than a meatball and a massage.
One thing the world had learned as we inch closer toward Week 2 of the biggest sporting event in the world — yes, bigger than the Olympics — is that expectations have to be managed when the traditional powerhouses are going against teams that the oddsmakers are giving little chance.
Now, that does not mean we should all go out and bet Egypt, Panama or Saudi Arabia at 1000-1, but the team sitting at 950-1 (Tunisia) was 1-1 with England into the 91st minute before sanity prevailed in the form of Harry Kane giving the Brits something to talk about other than the amount of bug spray they neglected to bring to Volgograd.
Pests abound at this early stage of the tournament, and we are not just talking about Uruguay’s Luis Suarez and his teeth and his tongue. (Those who believe Suarez will eventually bite someone, which he is prone to do, are advised to wager a shilling or a peso on that possibility eventuality. The payoff is 20-1 if he does.)
The favories remain Brazil (+350), Spain (+450), Germany (+500), France (+650), Belgium (+700), Argentina (+900) and England (+1000).
The second tier is comprised of Portugal (+1750), Uruguay (+2250), Croatia (+2500), Mexico (+4000) and Russia (+5000). If you are looking for value, it’s never all that bad of an idea to take a chance on the home team. The breeding habits of all things resembling gnats, midges, dipterons and Caucasians are not going to surprise the athletes who play for Putin (who, by the way, is -115 to attend more than 3.5 matches (we are still working on the odds of him winning Ohio again in the 2020 U.S. presidential election; along with busting Paul Manafort out of jail).
The longest shot in the field in the next few days is Iran at 16-1 against Spain tomorrow, and the match that is making my Tico homies bust out the Maalox is set for Friday, when Brazil will score 17 or 18 goals against Costa Rica despite the over/under sitting at 2 1/2.
That’s the funny/neat thing about the World Cup.
On any given day and nearly any given hour somewhere on this great planet of ours (yes, people in Cleveland are included), everyday activities cease almost completely as citizens drop whatever it is they are/were doing to watch their team compete.
https://www.getmoresports.com/sheridan-next-destination-kawhi-leonard-handicapping-field/
If you are fortunate enough to live in New York, you can find a bar/restaurant with ties to someone’s overseas homeland and drop in for an immersion course in rabidity. If you live anywhere else, you can still be virtually anywhere through Facetime, Skype, WhatsApp, WeChat, etc.
The world has always been this big but has never seemed so small, and the game not named flirting played by the most people in the most countries is not exactly losing its luster. Many people in America scoff at that notion and are dismissive of the sport, ignoring the fact that MLS games routinely draw rabid, sellout crowds while the upper decks of baseball stadiums are populated mostly by pigeons these days. Here’s a bet: Go to your local park, my fellow Americans, and count the number of people playing soccer vs. the number of people playing baseball. And try to do it without packing a weapon or calling ICE once you get there. I will set the ratio over/under at 10:1 for all locales not named Cooperstown.
But the great thing about America is that we are a country that is 98 percent comprised of non-Native Americans, and we don’t call them Indians or Redskins anymore unless we live in towns whose residents include people named Dan Gilbert or Donald Trump.
Yes, we treat Mexicans unfairly. But hey, it is interesting to have something in common with the Germans aside from Volkswagens, Frankfurters, Jaegermeister and a duel history of Jurgen Klinsmann recollections.
Mexican-Americans and Mexicans in America outnumber German-Americans and Germans in America by a lot, even in Weimar, TX and Schumenburg, TX. Would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in one of those places the other day when Mexico defeated Germany 1-0.
The folks bracing for what the Costa Ricans are bracing for are found in Sweden, but do not for one moment think a large percentage of people in Stockholm are going to be shying away from an opportunity for a 7-1 payoff when the Sweden-Germany match is played Saturday. Heck, a win in that match will be “I told you so” (“Jag Sa Det” in Swedish) fodder for those currently backing the Swedes at 1,500-1 to win the whole thing.
About a decade ago, I was working up in Bristol, Conn. when ESPN landed the rights to televise the World Cup in the U.S., and guys such as Bill Simmons, Chris Broussard, Ric Bucher, Colin Cowherd and Marc Stein were escstatic to be going global with their employer. Ah, but times change, and not one of those guys would make much of a chance of getting past the security gate at Fortress Steven A. unless Woj personally signed off on it and was given exclusive rights to Tweet about it.
Stein is doing his thing now at The New York Times, working for an editor who shoves soccer in the face of his home delivery subscribers morning after morning after morning. I have the blue bags and window-washing weapons to prove it.
The Old Gray Lady is spending a tidy percentage of the Sulzburger family fortune to bring its readers inside the land of voting machine hacking experts and Facebook news manipulation curators, and who am I to complain? In the morning, I will skip Maggie Haberman and David Brooks as I continue to mourn the loss of the lottery listings and the movie clock — you know, the things you really need from a newspaper before you line the birdcage.
Odds are -10000 that I will read anything aside from World Cup coverage in the Times, which is even-money to hate this column. But they are on shaky ground, what with their football picks during NFL season and their non-coverage (print edition) of things like Delaware’s victory in the race to be the first state to legalize sports wagering since Murphy v. NCAA changed the national sports gambling landscape.
They will eventually catch up, because the Sulzburger decendants of Punch and Pinch will eventually start asking why the most enormous pile of money to come across the national landscape since $1,000 bills were taken out of circulation is not being tapped into.
Meantime, get your gambling news right here.
It is a safe bet that we are a better cover than them, the Panamanians or the Egyptians.
