S.P. Read Esq. All change for England

Our daily columnist and pundit S.P. Read Esq previews England’s latest World Cup warm-up match tonight against Ecuador.

The best laid plans and all that …..

England’s World Cup training session in Miami hit the buffers on Monday when they were forced to train INDOORS after torrential storms hit the area.

So much for acclimatising for the weather they are likely to experience in Brazil. If they wanted rain they could have just stayed in the UK for a little bit longer 😉

They now have just two more matches before the competition proper starts on June 12 – and of course there are a full range of spread betting markets already available on the World Cup on Starspreads.com.

First up tonight though is a meeting with fellow World Cup rivals Ecuador (ITV 8pm) who can be bought at 11 with Star Spreads on the Star Spreads World Cup Outright Index. On that market it’s 10 points for finishing in the last 16. By contrast England can be bought at 18 so you would need England to reach the quarter finals (25 points) to make a profit as a buyer. Good luck with that project.

Before then, England have their final prep games in the Sun Life Stadium, with Ecuador tonight and Honduras on Saturday.

England have only met Ecuador twice, and won on both occasions:

HEAD TO HEAD
Jun 2006 World Cup England 1-0 Ecuador
May 1970 International Ecuador 0-2 England

Both teams are likely to field ‘experimental’ sides, which of course is always one of the problems with friendlies so close to a major tournament.

Hodgson looks set to shuffle his chess pieces around considerably tonight with James Milner being trialled in a right back role and the other key change being that Wayne Rooney is expected to be out wide rather than up front as he continues to build towards peak fitness ahead of Brazil.

There’s also a change in goal with Ben Foster replacing Joe Hart.

If you want to guess the team Hodgson is likely to go with, he issued a massive clue by saying “Look at the team who played against Peru and those who didn’t play, put some in the team and you won’t be too far wrong.”

So how much it will tell us about both sides respective World Cup chances is debatable but England will no doubt want to build on their 3-0 defeat of Peru at Wembley and maintain some momentum.

I fancy an England win tonight so will buy them with Star Spreads at 15.5 on the win index. An England win (25 points) closes the bet with a profit of 9.5 points x stake and if it’s a draw (settled at 10 points) then we’ll lose 5.5 points x stake.

The other market of interest is bookings – it’s hard to think there will be many big tackles going in but the spread of 20-23 doesn’t give us much fat to be playing with and I’d be nervous selling at the relatively short price on this market of 20.

CLICK HERE FOR LIVE MARKET ON STAR SPREADS

RECOMMENDED BET (scale 1-100 points)

BUY ENGLAND ON THE WIN INDEX AT AROUND 15.5 WITH STAR SPREADS for 5 points

• Any spread prices quoted are indicative and as always prices are subject to fluctuation.
• Please note the opinion, views and forecasts above are of the author and not of Star Spreads.