Well its the 13^th day of the 2010 World Cup but will it be lucky for England?

The heart says ‘yes’, but the brain says ‘maybe’ and now we are at the sharp end of the Group stages it really is do or die time for England. So far South Africa, France, Greece, Nigeria, Cameroon, North Korea and Cameroon have fallen on their swords and by the end of today another 4 teams will have joined them.

Todays first 2 games are the final matches in Group C – England vs Slovenia and USA vs Algeria. All four teams can still qualify from the Group depending on the outcome of both games, but I think that England and USA will escape from the group with 5 points each, with goal difference deciding on who tops the table. With Slovenia only needing a draw to qualify at Englands expense it will be interesting to see how they line up. England need to be attack minded, so if Slovenia play for the point they will be inviting pressure on themselves.

Hopefully Alex Ferguson has phoned up Rooney and told him not only to relax and enjoy himself, but also to remind him that he is supposed to be a centre forward and to stop dropping deep to pick up the ball. In the England vs Algeria game last week Rooney didn’t actually touch the ball in the Algerian penalty box. The betting for this game is a bit of a minefield, mainly due to the fact that England supporters tend to lump heavily onto the team thus shortening the odds just due to the amount of money placed as opposed to any actual thought behind the prices, but here are some of the best offers we can find.

England to win – 1/2 with William Hill

Steven Gerrard to score any time – 13/5 with William Hill

John Terry to score any time – 9/1 with Paddy Power

England to win 3-0 – 9/1 with 888sports

The other game in this group today is USA vs Algeria. The USA showed great bouncebackability in their game against Slovenia when they came back from 2-0 to draw 2-2 and even had a perfectly good goal disallowed. Coach Bob Bradley proved that its not only Maradona who can make nepotism work (his son in law plays for the National Team) by slinging his son on in that game, and Bradly Jr shipped in with the equalising goal.

Algeria have yet to score a goal in this group stage, however if they are to win the game they will have to be a lot more attack minded, and that could open up gaps at the back.

USA to win to nil – 9/5 with William Hill

Donovan (USA) to score at any time – 2/1 with Paddy Power and 888sports

Dempsey (USA) to score at any time – 21/10 with Bet365

Todays other 2 games are the final matches in Group D, where Germany take on Group leaders Ghana and Serbia take on Australia.

Germany have to win their game to qualify as I expect Serbia to be too strong for a depleted Australia team. Germany will be without hotshot Miroslav Klose after his recent sending off so whoever comes in will have to work hard to break down the 4-5-1 formation employed by the Ghanaians. The quality of the players in the German team suggest that they will win, but we have already seen some crazy results in this World Cup, and this could be another.

Germany 1 – 1 Ghana – 15/2 with Paddy Power and 888sports

Half Time draw/Full time Germany – 10/3 with Ladbrokes

Podolski (Germany) to score first – 6/1 with William Hill

The final game is Serbia vs Australia. Serbia are a gigantic team and although Australia can still qualify, they will have to go all out and attack the Serbian defence marshalled by Vidic and Ivanovic which could leave holes in the back for the tallest player in the World Cup, Nicola Zigic (all 6 foot 8 of him), to exploit. The Australian fighting spirit could mean that there are a lot of goals in this game.

Both teams to score – 11/10 with William Hill

Serbia 3 -2 Australia – 33/1 with William Hill and Bet365

Zigic (Serbia) to score at any time – 15/8 with Paddy Power  

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