Bet Of The Day: Argentina - South Korea

Match Odds: Argentina 1.45, Draw 4.10, South Korea 8.40

Kick-Off: Thursday, June 17, 13:30 CET.
Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg.

At the time of writing it's the Asians and not the fancied South Americans which top Group B. An intriguing game awaits in Johannesburg and after last night's (comparative) goal fest in Pretoria we have the prospect of two positive teams willing to play open football at lunchtime.

Argentina as expected secured the three points against Nigeria. The dominant nature of the performance has piped down the criticism of Diego Maradona...for now. An early goal set La Albiceleste on their way and but for some wonderful goalkeeping they would surely have won by more than the single goal margin.


Scoring twice against Greece has put South Korea top of the group eyeing up the prospect of reaching the last 16 afer a dismal World Cup 2006. While their display against the wretched Greeks was impressive it must be borne in mind that Otto Rehhagel's side suffered a nose bleed anytime they left their own half.

Still, you can only beat what is put in front of you and South Korea showed more than enough inventiveness to suggest they can cause Argentina problems. Indications in the camp suggest they will implement a more defensive strategy while Argentina are set to be without Juan Sebastian Veron.

For the head to head record you need to go all the way back to Mexico '86. Both coaches featured in that game as Argentina won 3-1 with Maradona immense providing the assists for every goal. He would settle for that again today.

Suggested Bets
Both teams scored early in their opening game so the first goal to come in the opening 45 minutes has merit, if not value, at 1.30. For the goal to occur in the opening ten minutes as happened in both of their first games you'll get odds of 4.0.

Gabriel Heinze, who scored the winner against Nigeria, is a worthwhile 21.0 to score first and 7.50 at anytime. Park Ji-Sung, who has now scored in three consecutive World Cup tournaments, is 17.0 to score first and 6.50 to be on the mark at anytime. If you simply want to rely on the toss of a coin you can back which team you think will kick off - both are priced at 1.83 in one of the more random bets.

Best Bet
Argentina to win by one goal at 3.20. We are covering our bases if they concede here plus there is a value in this bet. With the exceptions of Haiti and Canada the South Americans have won by one goal in their last six games beating Nigeria, Germany, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Peru. Also, they have never drawn a game under Maradona. They may well let one in today but Argentina should be capable of overcoming the talented Koreans by one goal. If you fancy a two goal winning margin the odds stretch to 3.75.

Yesterday's Tips
Chile did the business against Honduras to start the day with a win. Then Spain. Uh-oh! In one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history the favourites were undone by a well organised Swiss outfit who were as much as 30.0 by some bookmakers to win. Fancying David Villa to score certainly didn't pay off as he appeared to leave his shooting boots in Barcelona. Bravo Switzerland. At least Diego Forlan scored as we suggested in Uruguay South Africa while our tip of under 2.5 goals fell shy as Uruguay ran riot spoiling the hosts hopes of reaching the knock out phase.