Ecuador, France and Argentina in the World Cup Day 5 Picks

Two former World Cup Champions, France and Argentina hits the Brazil 2014 field for the first time in this World Cup; both as heavy favorites to bet on this day five of the tournament on Sunday June 15.

Switzerland (+154) vs Ecuador (+225), Group E, 12 PM ET

Switzerland is a defensive side that loves to play hard as a team and give the opponent lots of problems to score; the proof of that is they received one goal against in the last two World Cup appearances; that’s a remarkable stat.

The problem for the Swiss is they face a rival that doesn’t care about it; Ecuador beat Croatia in 2002 and Poland in 2006 in the two games against Europeans opposition; the Ecuadorians are fast, strong and built to play and win in Brazil.

“Like I always tell the players, I want to play seven games,” Ecuador coach Reinaldo Rueda said. “That is what I want at the World Cup.”

Pick: Ecuador by a one goal difference.

France (-275) vs Honduras (+1200), Group E, 3 PM ET

I know you are looking at Honduras trying to find some value to bet on them: there isn’t any.  The Central Americans didn’t score a goal in South Africa 2010, losing to Chile and Spain and drawing against Switzerland, four years ago.

For France, the story is simple; beat Honduras by a large margin of goals and then take Ecuador and Switzerland to avoid the embarrassment of what happened in South Africa 2010.

“The World Cup in South Africa is still strong for me,” Mathieu Valbuena says. “It was a collective cataclysm. I thought it would be the end for the 23 players who were there.”

France and Honduras have never played against each other, but they face two different historical realities; while the French were World Champions in 1998, the Hondurans are yet to win a World Cup game in team’s history.

Pick: France.

Argentina (-240) vs Bosnia-Herzegovina (+850), Group F, 6 PM ET

The Argentineans are one of the ultimate favorites to win the World Cup and of that makes them the favorites to win their first game against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Argentina hasn’t lost in the group stage since 2002; that’s makes them a hard team to bet against.

Bosnia-Herzegovina will debut in World Cups in this game, which is not easy to it against squad with such tremendous history as the Argentineans.

“To be honest, I rarely think about that match,” coach Safet Susic tells the Observer. “First, it was just a friendly, one of many that I played and many forgot about it, despite the hat-trick against the world champions. And it was easy back then. I was just a player, I didn’t have to think about hundreds of different stuff like now.”

The game will be close than anticipated because the Bosnians play well, but in the end it will be an Argentina victory as expected.

Pick: Argentina.