South American Teams Lead Every Group.

Lots has been written about the fortunes of individual nations as this World Cup has unfolded but if you take a continent-by-continent overview it is South America that is grabbing people’s attention. We all know that Brazil and Argentina have always been among the World Cup elite who can be counted on to reach the final stages of the competition but this time round all five of South America’s representatives seem destined to qualify for the later stages. Take a look at each of the Groups where a South American team is playing and you will see a remarkable trend. Group A has Uruguay topping the table, Argentina top Group B. Let’s not forget the Paraguayans who are in front in Group F either. The Group H leaders are Chile. So guess where Brazil is in Group G after beating Ivory Coast 3-1?  It isn’t a trick question… Now if I was a betting man I would put my money on a South American team winning the World Cup outright. As things stand the joint favourites to win the tournament, with World Cup betting odds being Argentina and Brazil at 4/1, Uruguay and Paraguay are both at a tempting 33/1 and Chile are at 40/1.

The Argentines and the Brazilians were the top scoring teams in the competition too, until Portugal resoundingly beat North Korea.  The leading goal scorers are also South American.  Gonzalo Higuain looks a likely candidate to be awarded the Golden Boot if he continues to find the net like he did in the Albiceleste’s 4-1 demolition of South Korea. He is the first player to have scored a World Cup hat-trick in eight years. The online betting odds on Higuain ending the competition as top scorer are now 11/4 with Luis Fabiano of Brazil at 9/2.

Can we expect to see an all South American World Cup Final on July 11^th?  Looking at the statistics it has happened before. At the very first World Cup in 1930 Uruguay defeated Argentina, then in 1950 Uruguay won again, this time beating Brazil. Will Johannesburg and the Soccer City stadium be reverberating to the sound of Vuvuzela’s blasting out a Latino rhythm as two South American sides go head to head for World Cup glory?  It is beginning to look a real possibility, doesn’t it?