World Cup Betting - The South African National Soccer Team

The FIFA Football World cup has finally arrived and fans all across the world are celebrating the most awaited sporting event in the world. If the latest reports are to be believed, the total amount of bets placed for the World Cup is £1billion. There are many websites in the internet which provides details about World Cup betting, but none of these sites can clearly predict a winner for this time as all teams are equally poised and do have the strength to win the tournament. World cup betting provides you the chance to win huge bets by simply predicting the team that would win the tournament.

The host nations have always given a good performance in the world cups. For example South Korea which hosted the cup in the year 2002 did surprise the whole world and made into the semifinals. In the next world cup which was held in Germany, the host nation came third in the tournament. This year's FIFA World cup is hosted by South Africa and if the past performances of the host nation are to be considered, then the South African national team do have a good chance to make some upsets in the tournament. You must also consider the prediction of the great Brazilian football legend, Pele that an Africa team would win the world cup before the year 2010. So let's see who is going to be the winner of this year's South African football World cup.

South Africa was not allowed to participate in any of the international competitions due to the apartheid problems in their country. There were excluded from international competitions for almost 50 years and it was in the year 1992 that FIFA took the decision to allow South African football team to enter the world soccer stage. The team has come a long way since then and has been consistently improving their FIFA rankings. Their first international triumph came within four months of their readmission to the world stage when they defeated Tunisia to win their first African Cup of Nations trophy. This was a great surprise to football fans all across the world as till then South African team was considered as under dogs.

South Africa does have a good record in the World Cup qualification matches as well. They have qualified for two out of the three world cups that they were eligible to after their return from the ban. South Africa barely missed the chance to qualify for Germany 2006 and they have automatically booked a place in this year's tournament, as they are the host nation.

South African football team as predicted by many football pundits does have the strength and the players to create upsets in this year's World Cup. The current South African team is a young squad and most of the players in the national side play for clubs in England, Germany, Belgium, Greece, Netherlands, Israel and Russia. The greatest advantage of this team is that all players are experienced due to the exposure that they get in the club levels. The team is captained by Aaron Mokoena, who holds the record for playing the most number of matches for his country and is also the youngest player to have debuted for South Africa.

There are some great talents in the current South African football team. Steven Pienaar is the most familiar face in the team as he plays for Everton in the English Premier league. He is in Everton from the year 2007-08 and is expected to do a big role in South Africa's World Cup dreams. Another prominent player on South African team is Dikgacoi who plays for the English premier league club Fulham.
If you are really into World cup betting, then you should seriously follow the performance of South Africa as the host nations have always performed better in the World cups. Are you betting on South Africa in the World Cup? Place you bet today at www.sportsbook.com the home of World Cup betting