Chile vs. Venezuela Copa America odds

It’s quarterfinal time and there’s no quarter asked and none given as Group A topping Chile take on Group B Runners Up Venezuela in the Copa America 2011. Venezuala's run is about to be ended by high flying Chile.

Chile are the clear favourites in the soccer lines for this one, Victor Chandler have them at -150 to win the match, while they’ve put Venezuela an outside bet at +450. I for one don’t see any reason to bet against the bookies favourites. The match is an evening kick off on Sunday the 17th of July, at the Estadio San Juan del Bicentenario. For those of you that don’t believe in form tactics of the skills involved in sports gambling (possibly here by accident) you might be interested to know that the stadium was inaugurated on March 16, 2011 (having missed the supposed opening date of May, 2010, to commemorate the 200 years of the May Revolution) and the first match played on the pitch (not counting labourers’ kickabouts) featured Venezuela. The Venezuelans lost 4-1 to Argentina back then, if you fancy a repeat of that score you can get +3300 betting odds with Bodog.

The current run of head to head matches suggest that it won’t be that one sided, the last time these teams met the game ended tied 2-2, and the two times before that the games were decided by a single goal (3-2 and 1-0) BOTH times for Chile. 

Oh what a year

2011 has been kind to Chile and they haven’t lost a single international game (including friendlies) this year. In fact you’d have to go as far back as September 2010 for La Roja’s last defeat, and that was a 2-1 away friendly defeat to the Ukraine, since them Chile have amassed 17 goals, and conceded just four. For the mathematically minded of you out there you can average out (based on those eleven games) that Chile score 1.54 goals per game and concede 0.36. As goals come in wholes and not halves that would put the score at 2 -0 (+550 with Bodog) but beware the maths! Remember that an average adult has one ovary AND one testicle! In the same year Venezuela has won just three times, and their last defeat was a 3-0 home defeat at the hands and feet of Spain this June. Looking at Venezuela’s last eleven matches (for the sake of comparison) they have won four, lost two and drawn five. If you fancy that Sunday’s game will end tied, that’s at +250 in the soccer odds.

A regular Chile-fest

This match does scream Chile victory, and it’s likely to be a hot time in the old town on Sunday night. If you want to screw some money out of the collective claws of the sportsbooks you’ll have to scratch a little harder and dig a little deeper. The great big smashing odds with bet365 go as high as +50000, and you can retire on that one if you bet on Chile winning 5-3, 7-0 or Venezuela wining 1-6. But I doubt that anyone really thinks the match will be that prolific, soccer betting in the land of the sensible means predicting the winning margin; Chile winning by a single goal is at +240, Venezuela winning by one (the most likely way they’ll win it) is at +550. If you know something about Venezuela that I don’t you can get them winning by two goals at +1400 or by three goals at +5000.

Just to round out the odds, you can pick up a draw at +275, however with the class and talent on offer I can’t see 90 minutes passing without a goal.

While all the talk will be of a Chile victory, let’s pay some credit to Venezuela who ended their Group Stage with a shock result against Paraguay. The surprises started early as Venezuela got off the mark with a fifth minute goal from Rondon, but Paraguay came back hard and equalised on 33 minutes to take the into half time all equal. As Paraguay seemed to be bossing them they added to their goal with a strike on 63 minutes  (from Lucas Ramón Barrios) and then looked to have sealed the deal on 86 minutes with a third goal (courtesy of  Christian Miguel Riveros). But the dice had barely stopped spinning as Miku scored what was considered a late consolation goal on 90 minutes and the Grendy Perozo popped up on 90+3 and scored an amazing equalizer.  It wasn’t as if Venezuela had their back to the wall either as, thanks to their draw against holders Brazil and a slender victory over Ecuador, their partaking in the quarter-finals was already assured (the point guaranteed Paraguay’s place in the knock-out stages).Venezuela seemed to have had their quota of thrills and spills and i foresee, a tidy performance and a victory for Chile who will go on to face the winner of Brazil vs. Paraguay.