World Cup Group Stage B Betting

Group B is not an easy one with three teams ranked in the top 20 in the world led by soccer giant Argentina that has won the World Cup twice, but did not look good in qualifying.

FIFA Rankings for Group B teams as of May 6th:

Argentina - 7th
Greece - 12th
Nigeria - 20th
South Korea - 47th

Argentina
Two-time World Cup winner Argentina is the favorite to win the group and while they have a loaded team with many world-class players they are a wild card this summer. They have one of if not the best player in the world in Lionel Messi of Barcelona and one of the best midfielders in Javier Mascherano of Liverpool, but their defense is a big concern. Another concern is the fact that since there is so much individual talent on the squad that they do not play a team game and rely on individual players to perform, especially on offense.

Nigeria
Offense, offense, offense, which is what Nigeria is all about with their attacking style. They have a little home field advantage this summer, but their defense is a major concern. They have a slew of strikers that can score such as Osaze Odemwingie of Locomotiv Moscow, Obafemi Martins of Wolfsburg, and Ikechukwu Uche of Real Zaragoza. They also, like Argentina, play great individual soccer, but do not play well as a team.

Greece
Greece is very unlike the two above teams that have better odds to win the group, as they have one of the best defenses in the tournament and will likely not give up many goals. Sotirios Kyrgiakos of Liverpool is the anchor in the backfield, but their offense will not score a lot and the Greeks may have to rely on the counter-attack for most of their offense. Don't count Greece out, as if they can thwart the solid attacks of Argentina and Nigeria they have a legit shot to make it out of Group B.

South Korea
South Korea made it to the semifinals in 2002 as the host and they will another Cinderella story to make it out of Group B. While they do have Manchester United striker Park Ji-Sung and AS Monaco striker Park Chu-Young their midfielders are mediocre and will have trouble setting these guys up and their defense, while decent, is undersized and has major problems on set pieces. The South Koreans play great as a team and have good chemistry and they will need those things since they lack many world-class players.

Here are the odds to win the Group Stage B at Sportsbook.com as of May 26th.

• Argentina -225
• Nigeria +475
• Greece +500
• South Korea +1100