World Cup Predictions: South Africa vs Uruguay Odds

Second round match-ups begin on Wednesday afternoon with South Africa vs Uruguay in the Group A bracket at 2:30pm EST (20:30) and can be seen live on ESPN. Online bookmakers have Uruguay +130 money line favorites in 2010 World Cup predictions vs South Africa +220 while the over/under total sitting at 2.5 UNDER (-230). The soccer betting point-spread line has Uruguay a PK (-165) while South Africa is a PK (+130) with a draw paying +220. Both teams played respectable first round game with South Africa pulling out a 1-1 draw with Mexico this week while Uruguay drew with France 0-0.

The host country of South Africa is currently sitting on top of the Group A bracket but with Mexico, France and Uruguay each with 1-point, it will take a winning performance on Wednesday to stay there. Uruguay showed vs France that they can absorb the pressure that a championship team presses but Bafana Bafana showed vs Mexico that they too can absorb constant attacks. "I believe the most difficult game for us was the first one," South African manager Carlos Alberto Parreira said this week. "The whole world was watching and the pressure was there. After we played the first game we felt more confident, even though we are now playing against a very good team like Uruguay, who have lots of players playing for the big teams in Europe. They have a lot of experience."

The last time Uruguay faced South Africa was in the 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup which saw a high scoring affair as La Celeste won the event 4-3. If Uruguay is defeat the home team, Diego Forlan (Athletico Madrid) will need to find the net and find it often. Against France, Forlan had two scoring opportunities only to see South African goalkeeper Itumeng Khune stop them both. "We had a few good chances but we were often guilty of wasting our final ball," said Forlan after the game. "South Africa is a team with good players, fast players that can counter and come out very quickly so we are going to have to be very careful," he added.