World Cup odds

UncleScoopy

2022 WORLD CUP WINNER ODDS

France +110
Argentina +170
Croatia +750
Morocco +900

France and Argentina are heavily favored in the semis.

Interestingly, Croatia and Morocco are the two undefeated teams, but are the underdogs with the longest odds. Argentina lost that shocker to Saudi Arabia in pool play. France did also drop a game (to Tunisia) in pool play, but they didn’t make an effort to win that game. They had already clinched a spot in the elimination rounds, so they rested their starters against Tunisia.

Croatia and Morocco have already played each other in the tournament. They were in the same pool, and drew. Morocco won its other two games to win the pool, while Croatia finished with a win and two draws.

SIDEBAR: The country of Croatia has fewer than four million people, a small pool to draw a great national team from.

13 thoughts on “World Cup odds”

  1. I’m surprised that they are still scheduling a 3rd place game for Saturday… a lot of tournaments are getting rid of this joyless match

    1. Maybe the bronze is a matter of pride.

      Of course there is a more pleasant solution to that. When I run a single-elim pickleball tournament, I just award bronze to both losing semi-finalists and skip the effin’ game. As you implied, third is no special honor, and finishing fourth – the best team without a medal – is a source of frustration.

      Plus – does a third place game even attract a crowd? It seems like kind of a “who cares?” match.

      1. In individual sport the third place Bronze means something just by Olympic tradition… In bracket tourneys I think you just end up with two demoralized teams who also possibly want to take out their frustrations on each other. I had to look it up, but the NCAA Basketball tourney hasn’t had a “consolation” game since 1981

      2. The bronze medal is actually better than the silver. Because you have to win that game to get a bronze. The silver goes to the team that lost to the gold. So really the silver medalists are literally losers.

        Well, at least when it comes to head-to-head sports. I guess in track and field it’s different.

        1. Really. no one remembers her won the bronze of last World Cup without looking it up. But we do remember Croatia lost to France. So in your own words the loser came back and so did winner I don’t believe Morocco or Argentina was the Bronze. So absolutely absurd you think Bronze is better than making it to Final. Ask 4 teams left if they would want to lose these semis to have chance to win Bronze

    2. “a hinky-dink football game, held in a hinky-dink town (Miami), played by hinky-dink players. That’s all second place is – hinky dink.”
      Vince Lombardi about the NFL’s Playoff Bowl game for third place.

    1. And it was an own goal!

      That was against Canada, of all teams, probably the worst team at the World Cup. It was not a good tournament for Canada but at least they have that highlight. Canada had the bad luck to be in a group with two of the semi-finalists (Croatia and Morocco), plus the world’s second-ranked team (Belgium) heading into the tournament.

      1. Canada certainly had a tough bracket and a bad tournament, but they didn’t finish last. They were 31st out of 32, edging out the host country! (Pretty embarrassing showing for Qatar. No home court advantage there.)

    1. Guess France would like wine when they win back to back, but this time against Argentina, not Croatia like 4 years ago

Comments are closed.