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World Cup Soccer Free Picks At Mycapper.com -05-26-06

May 26 - World Cup betting excitement is growing on a daily basis, and if you would like free picks for World Cup Soccer look no further than the sports handicapping
When you look at the variety of bets you can place on the 2006 World Cup all those odds offered by sportsbooks can be a little overwhelming. The world's best sports betting handicappers will find the top bets for you and they're giving away some of that analysis free of charge!Mycapper.com, where anyone can sign up at no charge and access free picks for all sports betting events, is now giving away World Cup picks. The free picks out now include a bet on the leading goalscorer in the tournament, as well as a free World Cup parlay where you get 3 picks absolutely free.The latest World Cup odds are out now at Bet365.com, but before you place a bet you should check out the advice at Mycapper.com - it won't cost you anything and it might make you a small fortune!

Australia makes first World Cup since '74

Australia advanced to the World Cup for the first time since 1974, beating Uruguay 4-2 on penalty kicks Wednesday night following a 1-0 victory.
Marco Bresciano scored in the 34th minute for Australia, which lost the first leg of the home-and-home, total-goals series 1-0 in Montevideo on Saturday. Neither team managed to score after that through regulation and 30 minutes of overtime, and a World Cup berth was decided by penalty kicks for the first time.
"It's such a shock now," said Australia forward Mark Vidmar, part of Australia's team that failed to qualifying for the previous three World Cups. "We dominated the whole game. The composure we had was fantastic."
Mark Schwarzer saved two penalty kicks for Australia, which lost to Uruguay four years ago in a playoff for a berth in the 2002 tournament. Schwarzer blocked shots from Dario Rodriguez on Uruguay's first kick and from Marcelo Zalayeta on Uruguay's fourth.
Harry Kewell, Lucas Neill, Vidmar and John Aloisi converted penalty kicks past Uruguay goalkeeper Fabian Carini. Australia captain Mark Viduka missed on his country's fourth kick. After Zalayeta's shot was saved, Aloisi got the winner against the two-time World Cup champions, sparking the crowd of 82,698.
"We thought it was going to happen, we've been dreaming it for 32 years," said Aloisi, who stripped off his shirt and ran along the sidelines after getting the winner. "We had 20 million people following us, we just can't believe it. We're there."
Gustavo Varela and Fabian Estoyanoff converted penalty kicks for Uruguay, which went first in the shootout.
Australia is coached by Guus Hiddink, who coached South Korea to the 2002 World Cup semifinals.
"At times, they were complaining that we were working too hard. But I think it was worth it," Hiddink said.
Rodriguez had scored for Uruguay in Saturday's game.
The final four berths in the 32-nation World Cup field were at stake later Wednesday. In Europe, the Czech Republic was ahead 1-0 going into its game against visiting Norway, Spain took a 5-1 lead into its match at Slovakia and Switzerland went to Turkey ahead 2-0. In the playoff between Asia and North and Central America and the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago was at Bahrain following a 1-1 tie in the first leg.

Japan's World Cup Prospect

Tatsuya Tanaka only played his first match for Japan this summer but the FIFA World Cup™ finals hopeful could not have asked for a better start.
The Urawa Reds forward may face a battle with the likes of Atsushi Yanagisawa and Masashi Oguro for a starting place in Zico's side but his performance against China in the Eastern Asian Football Federation (EAFF) Championship underlined immediately his predatory prowess.
On his first international start, the 22-year-old struck a superb late goal to earn Japan a draw after they had trailed China 2-0, and in doing so earned himself a call-up for the final match of Japan's FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign against Iran. An injury denied Tanaka a second chance to impress Zico but he is determined to ensure that further opportunities come his way.
"For the time being I must do my job well with my club and help Urawa Reds win this season's J-League," he said in a recent interview with FIFAworldcup.com. "Because this is the only thing that I can do to earn a place in the national team and play in the World Cup in Germany next year."
Early daysTanaka started to play football at the age of seven. Growing up in Tokuyama City on the southern tip of Japan's main island, Honshu, his talents attracted the attention of football scouts while he was still attending the Shuyo Elementary School. By his teens, Tanaka was ready to follow the old-fashioned route of the football hopeful in Japan, entering a specialist 'soccer' school, in his case the renowned Teikyo High School in Tokyo.
In spring 2001, Tanaka left school and stepped into the professional ranks, joining Urawa Reds. It was not long before he struck his first goal in senior football and the date remains etched on his mind. "Among all the goals I've scored for my club, the most memorable was my first as a professional. I scored in a 4-2 win against Tokyo Verdy and I can remember the date clearly – 6 May 2001," he says. Since then he has become a regular, if not prolific, scorer, recording 35 goals in 111 appearances to date for Reds. Last season he netted ten times while this term he has seven goals to his name already.
Every footballer, be it a park player or a professional, grew up with a hero they wished to emulate, and Tanaka is no exception. The player he looked up to was striker Masahiro Fukuda who in the 1995 season was the most prolific scorer in Japanese football, with 32 goals in 50 games - and obviously Tanaka took note.
Another hero was Kazu Miura, Japanese football's star player in the first years of the J-League, who is still playing today at second division Yokohama FC at the age of 38.
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Out to prove himselfNow Tanaka's aim is to prove he can do a job for the national team. The EAFF Championship in Korea Republic offered him a first opportunity, following Zico's decision to use a squad of home-based players for the tournament and, in doing so, experiment a little. In the absence of European-based forwards Yanagisawa and Naohiro Takahara, Tanaka featured as a second-half substitute in the opening 1-0 loss to Korea DPR and was named in the starting lineup for the following fixture against China.
There it was that he made his mark. China started strongly and an inexperienced Japan side went in at the interval two goals down. After Teruyuki Moniwa had pulled a goal back, Tanaka picked the perfect moment to claim his first international goal, rocketing a shot into the roof of the net with three minutes left on the clock.
Afterwards Zico said of his new faces: "I think they did a good job given that this was the first time they had played together. They produced a lot of chances, although it would have been better if they had converted more of them." It can only help Tanaka's cause that, of all the new faces, he was the man who found the finishing touch when it mattered.

Mexico's World Cup Prospect

Mexico's 5-2 win over Guatemala last week was all about one man: Francisco Fonseca. The Cruz Azul striker found the net four times, making him only the fourth Tricolor player ever to achieve the feat in a FIFA World Cup™ qualifier.
But that was not all. Fonseca's hefty haul against the Central Americans also did wonders for his goal-scoring average. With 15 in his first 20 games, the player universally known as Kikín has a higher goals-per-game ratio than Enrique Borja, Luis Hernandez, Cuauhtemoc Blanco or Jared Borgetti had at a similar stage in their international careers.
His record also surpasses that of many of the greats of world football, including Ronaldo, Thierry Henry or Michael Owen. When asked about the feat, Fonseca was typically unassuming: "The truth is that I wouldn't have scored a single goal if it weren't for assists from my team-mates. So I owe everything to them."
The strength to endure Despite suffering many setbacks, both personal and professional, along the way, Fonseca has always found the will to carry on. The loss of a brother at an early age and having to spend many long years in his country's lower divisions only served to strengthen his resolve and will to win.
Fonseca was only two years old when tragedy struck his family, with Enrique, his older brother, dying suddenly in his sleep. And though he grew up admiring a brother he never really knew, he did inherit two enduring features from his sibling: his nickname Kikín and his love of football.
And so it was that Fonseca dreamed from an early age of becoming a professional footballer. However, realising his dream would prove far from easy. Despite a long apprenticeship in the reserves at his hometown side Leon, he was not given a chance to prove himself in the top flight. Instead, Fonseca was sent out on loan to three second-division sides, Yucatan, Curtidores and La Piedad. It was with the latter that the striker finally made his first division debut at 22 after helping them secure promotion the previous season.
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Having strived so long to get to the top, Fonseca struggled to make an impression when he got there. Deployed out on the right wing, the centre-forward failed to find the net in his 28 games. In spite of this, he caught the eye of one of the legends of the Mexican game, UNAM Pumas coach Hugo Sanchez, who signed the player, convinced he had unearthed a rough diamond.
After spending 14 games on the bench, Sanchez finally gave him his chance and since then Fonseca has not looked back. He played 71 times in two and half years, netting an impressive 25 goals. Moreover, he played a pivotal role in ending a 13-year title drought for the Pumas, endearing himself to the club's fanatical supporters in the process.
The reasons for Fonseca's popularity were threefold: he had a keen eye for goal, demonstrated enormous commitment, and always had time for the fans. Unlike many of his peers, Kikín regularly put an extra hour in after training to work on his game, and often spent as long again patiently signing autographs and posing for photos with the club's fans.
A star on the riseIn November 2004, Fonseca made his international debut in Mexico's friendly against Ecuador. His impact was immediate, with El Tri winning 2-1 courtesy of a brace from their new striker. Since then, he has been almost ever-present in his country's starting XI. His ten goals in Mexico's Germany 2006 qualifying campaign made him the third-highest scorer in the CONCACAF Zone preliminaries.
In January 2005, the player was transferred to Cruz Azul for close to four million dollars – an enormous sum in the Mexican transfer market. Fonseca quickly picked up where he left off, plundering 16 goals in his 28 games after forming a deadly strike partnership with the Argentine Cesar 'Chelito' Delgado.
Fonseca says he still has two more goals he wants to achieve. The first, obviously, is to compete at the FIFA World Cup and help his side make history there. "I am really excited about playing at the World Cup. The team is improving all the time. I think we have a great squad and a bunch of level-headed players. We also have plenty of time to make sure we arrive at the World Cup in tip-top condition. We're all united in our goal to be world champions," the 25-year-old says.
His second aspiration is to one day play in Europe. "One of my goals is to give it a go there. I'm working towards that every day, and God willing my chance will arrive. If opportunity knocks for me one day, then I'll be ready," the player vows. With his goal-scoring instinct and abundant charisma, expect the offers to come thick and fast after he struts his stuff on the world stage next summer in Germany.

England's World Cup Prospect

Hype is hard to escape in modern football, where a handful of promising appearances can see a young player thrust prematurely into the spotlight, but when bold claims are made about England midfielder Shaun Wright-Phillips, there is good reason to take heed.
Wright-Phillips, in the words of Jose Mourinho, manager of his new club Chelsea, "has the qualities that everyone is looking for in a modern footballer – he is quick, he is intelligent, he is creative". And that was before Mourinho had even begun working with his £21m acquisition from Manchester City.
Having seen him at close hand on the training ground and in pre-season matches, Mourinho went further in his praise when he said last week: "For me, he's even better than I thought. He is more intelligent. He is not just intuitive but he thinks about the game."
Mourinho is not the first person to marvel at the exciting combination of speed and skill encapsulated in Wright-Phillips' diminutive 5ft 6in frame. Former England star Kevin Keegan was one of the player's managers at his previous club, Manchester City, and he described him last year – in typically unrestrained fashion - as "the best young player in England by a long way, with more courage, desire and heart than anyone I have ever worked with".
There is considerable evidence already of these qualities that Keegan cites. As the adopted son of Ian Wright, the Arsenal and England striker of the 1990s, it is inevitable his father's enthusiasm should have rubbed off on him – indeed Wright-Phillips himself has told how he and younger brother Bradley, a striker at Man City, would have to complete a certain number of kick-ups before being allowed into the house.
As a teenager Wright-Phillips, who is now 23, showed the strength of character to recover from being rejected by Nottingham Forest ("Too small," he was told) and instead went to Man City where he gradually made his name.
Fast forward a few years and he responded to the pressure of making his England debut last August by scoring a wonder goal within 20 minutes of taking the field as a substitute against Ukraine - carrying the ball from his own half before crashing a shot into the net from 20 yards.
That was not Wright-Phillips’ only spectacular strike last term – he scored a memorable 25-yarder at his father's old stamping ground of Highbury in January, underlining the goal threat he brings in addition to his pace and trickery. Indeed it was one of eleven goals that left him as City’s joint-top scorer in 2004/05.
Move to ChelseaNow, of course, Wright-Phillips is a Chelsea player. Roman Abramovich's riches ensured that Arsenal, his father's former club, could not compete for his signature and made him the third most expensive English player in history (behind Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney). The popular perception is that joining Chelsea – and playing UEFA Champions League football at Stamford Bridge - will help him add to his four England caps but whereas he was a key player at City, there is no guarantee of a place in the Chelsea team.
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The London club already have three players to fill the wide positions in Dutch international Arjen Robben, Republic of Ireland winger Damien Duff, and England's Joe Cole. It will help that Wright-Phillips is a versatile footballer who can play not only on the right wing but also as one of a front three – as on his full England debut against the Netherlands – or even in a midfield trio.
Wright-Phillips, who appeared as a second-half substitute in Chelsea’s season-opening victory over Arsenal in the FA Community Shield on Sunday, believes he can only prosper, declaring that: "Competition is just healthy really and will help make me a better player."
One person who will hope as much is his England manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, who with an eye on next summer's FIFA World Cup™, is hoping the Londoner could be one of those players who step up a level at just the right time to make an impact on the world stage. As the Swede told FIFAworldcup,com: "There are some young players out there such as Shaun Wright-Phillips, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Kieran Richardson who could progress in the next 12 months."
It is a big year then for Wright-Phillips – and that's not just hype talking.