World Cup Dark Horses

March 9th, 2006 | by: WC Bob | View Comments

In the next few months you will undoubtedly hear a lot of people talking about their World Cup dark horse teams. These are teams that are flying under the radar screen and aren’t considered favorites to win the tournament. It is believed the term ‘dark horse’ was first used in The Young Duke, a novel written in 1831 by Benjamin Disraeli. Back then, Disraeli didn’t say who his dark horses for the 2006 were, but fear not because here are our top three dark horse picks.

The darkest of our dark horses is Serbia and Montenegro. The Plavi boast a solid defense that will make them competitive against anyone. Because they are in the Group of Death with Argentina, Holland and Cote d’Ivoire, S&M is considered a long shot with odds as high as 125-1. Don’t let these numbers fool you. Serbia and Montenegro is one of the best teams in Europe and will make some noise this summer.

A lot of people have jumped on the Croatia bandwagon lately, especially after they beat Argentina last week. Croatia had a magical run to the semifinals in 1998 and this probably has made them more of a popular choice than they truly deserve to be. Still, if you look at the odds, Croatia is fetching 80-1. So not everyone thinks they can win, but we think with the right breaks Croatia could lift the trophy.

If you watched them get crushed by Ireland last week, you probably aren’t eager to put money on Sweden. We are still bullish on this team anyway. When its players are fit and on form, Sweden is a dangerous team. With a goal scorer like Zlatan Ibrahimovic lurking around, Sweden will always have the potential to score. Sweden is a much better team than the 50-1 odds it is currently getting.

Everyone has a dark horse. Who is yours?