World Cup Betting
World Cup Top Goalscorer Daily Preview
Despite both being eliminated from the 2010 World Cup by the odd goal in an even semi-final, the tournament is not yet over for either Uruguay or Germany. The two former winners have the matter of a third/fourth place play-off match in Port Elizabeth on Saturday evening to determine who wins the bronze medal.
For four strikers with realistic ambitions to win the World Cup Golden Shoe award, it is also an important night as it is their final chance to add to their goals tally.
In May, I tipped Miroslav Klose at 30/1 to top score in South Africa. The fact I backed him each way already pretty much guarantees me a payout, but a couple of goals for the prolific international hitman could see Klose retain the award he won in Germany in 2006.
The 32 year old deserves to be held in the same esteem as some of the great strikers in recent football history. With 52 goals in 101 international appearances - better than a goal every other game - his international scoring record is nothing short of sensational. And, the Polish born striker is just one goal from equalling Ronaldo’s record of fifteen World Cup goals. A brace against Uruguay would see Klose become the World Cup’s greatest ever striker - an incentive to perform in Port Elizabeth if ever he needed one.
A goal behind both David Villa and Wesley Sneijder, Klose is 5/1 to lift the Golden Shoe in South Africa. Had he not been suspended for a match and a half after his sending off against Serbia, we might already be celebrating the tournament’s greatest ever goal machine.
One of Klose’s Bayern team-mates also harbours ambitions of winning the Golden Shoe. Thomas Muller hadn’t scored an international goal before arriving in South Africa, but his four goals helped his side to the semi-final - a match he missed through suspension. Muller is 12/1 to win the award, and if he were to prevail it would be the most surprising winner since a little known Sicilian - Salvatore Schillaci - won the Golden Shoe in 1990.
Both Uruguay strikers still have Golden Shoe ambitions
Before kick-off, any chance Uruguay had of success was largely based on the fact that they boasted two of Europe’s leading strikers. After a quiet start in a 0-0 draw with France, both Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan have come to life and the pair are 66/1 and 12/1 respectively to take the award.
Atletico Madrid striker Diego Forlan was 66/1 to lift the award before the tournament began and has four goals going into Saturday’s match. His long range strikes against Ghana and the Netherlands have cemented his position as one of the world’s most prolific strikers and the two time Pichichi winner has enhanced his reputation further in South Africa.
Luis Suarez was doing a decent job of adding a nought to his transfer fee every game he played in South Africa until an instinctive intervention suddenly turned him into Public Enemy No 1. His goal-line handball against Ghana might have kept his side in the tournament, but for the press coverage he has received since, he may as well have shot a kitten in the centre circle. Whether it stops a likely big money move to La Liga or the Premier League is another matter and it’s likely that the Ajax captain has played his last game for the Amsterdam side.
The third/fourth place match tends to be a surprisingly open affair with the matches since 1978 averaging over four goals a game. I think there could be plenty of chances for the likes of Klose, Muller, Suarez and Forlan to add to their tallies in this one, and, from an unashamedly selfish point of view, a Klose hat-trick to secure the Golden Shoe at 12/1 would be the best outcome.
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