Brazil v Japan Confederations Cup Prediction 15th June 2013

Brazil v Japan Betting Preview
The opening match of the 2013 FIFA confederations Cup is on Saturday, with the host nation Brazil looking to quickly build up a head of steam. This is a warm up event ahead of next year’s World Cup in Brazil, but the Brazilians have been struggling to find consistent winning form of late. After taking just two wins away from their last nine matches, coach Luiz Felipe Scolari clearly still has a lot of building work to do. But the South Americans did conclude their warm ups with a 3-0 thumping of France, so are they going to be peaking at the right time?

Brazil v Japan Betting Odds at online bookmaker Ladbrokes
Brazil 2/7, Draw 9/2, Japan 17/2

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Brazil v Japan Recommended Bet:
Well, at least there may be a bit of light at the end of the tunnel for Brazil, after a strong second half showing against France recently. That was their final warm up match ahead of the Confederations Cup. Since the last time that Brazil met Japan back in October of 2012, the form of the South Americans has been patchy. They beat Japan 4-0 on that occasion, but then they struggled to nail any form down following that. In the nine matches following their last meeting with Japan, Brazil have posted five draws and just two wins in their matches since, including a defeat and a draw against England. So huge room for improvement clearly. Going forward, Brazil look alright, and they have the phenomenal talent of new Barcelona signing Neymar of course. Defensively, there are holes to plug.

Regardless of form and trying to find the right tactics, Brazil go as strong favourites to win the opening match of the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. They are the title holders, after winning the last two editions back to back, three times in total in the history of the event. This is going to be massively important for them, not only because it is a dress rehearsal for the 2014 World Cup, but also because they have been void of competitive football, being the next World Cup hosts. Brazil have still be trading alongside Spain as joint favourites to win the 2014 World Cup and it is unlikely that Japan will pose them too many problems. The Asian nation completed their warm up for the tournament with a 1-0 win over Iraq, and that came after big celebrations after taking a draw against Australia. That result guaranteed them a place in next summer’s World Cup, becoming the first nation to qualify alongside Brazil.

Japan’s form has not been great either really, taking just one win in their last four international matches. Prior to that run they did rattle off three wins in a row, but that has to be taken into full context because the victories came against Oman, Latvia and Canada. This is clearly the biggest, and sternest test that they will have faced in a long time, a real step up in class. The football ethics of Japan are good, they are quick and stroke the ball around. The quality in standard is unlikely to get them close to a victory against Brazil. The potential is there in the Brazilian squad, Scolari just needs to piece it all together.

The head to head between Brazil and Japan is all in favour of the South Americans. Nine times they have met before and seven of those games have ended in wins for Brazil, with Japan holding on for draws in the other two. The goal tally in those nine matches stands at 24 for Brazil and just four for Japan.

Form
Brazil DDWDDW, Japan WWWLLD