Soccer 6 gets a real African flavour

Our Soccer 6 Pool (Sunday 4 September, S6 V1 P1) has an African flavour, with games for qualification to the AFCON 2017 tournament.

South Africa cannot qualify, as the best they can do in their group is finish second, should they beat Mauritania at home this weekend – but cannot get the points to make them one of two best secondplaced finishers from the groups (the 13 group winners plus two best second-placed finishers join the hosts to make up the 16-team tournament).

M1: Malawi v Swaziland: Swaziland can sneak in as one of the two best second-placed finishers. But the Swazis do not have a great away record so go all three results.

M2: Burkina Faso v Botswana: The home team must win to guarantee themselves top spot and are my outright selection to beat a Botswana team who cannot qualify.

M3: Congo Brazzaville v GuineaBissau: Go as wide as possible.

M4: Zambia v Kenya: Both teams are unable to advance. Zambia’s home-ground advantage favours them, but let’s add the draw.

M5: Guinea v Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe has already qualified as runaway group winners, but Guinea cannot advance. Play it safe and go for all three possibilities.

M6: Tunisia v Liberia: This is the most interesting game with log leaders Liberia traveling to secondplaced Tunisia, both teams locked on 10 points. Tunisia are favoured, and I make them an outright selection to win.

Mike’s R324 selection for the Soccer 6 Pool on Sunday 4 September 2016 S6 V1 P1 is: M1 =1, 2, 3; M2 = 1; M3 =1, 2, 3; M4 =1, 2; M5 =1, 2, 3; M6 = 1.

The featured Soccer 10 Pool (S10 V3) is on Sunday, 4 September, Stay with the same selections in games that are common to both pools and add the following to this

pool, where the games are all from World Cup Qualifiers in Europe:

M2: Team B, Azerbaijan to beat San Marino away; M3: Team B, Poland to win away against Kazakhstan; and M9: Team B, Scotland to win in Malta.

Suggested R432 perm for Soccer 10 Pool on Sunday 4 September S10 V3: M1 =1, 2, 3; M2 = 3; M3 = 3; M4 =1, 2, 3; M5 =2, 3; M6 =1, 2, 3; M7 = 1; M8 =1, 2; M9 = 3; M10 = 2, 3.

In bigger perms, I would change the following: M2 =2, 3; M8 =1, 2, 3; and M9 = 2, 3. This extended perm would cost R2 592.

The Soccer 13 Pool on Saturday 3 September S13 V1 and my outright selection is in M2: Team A, Bolton Wanderers to beat Southend United and consolidate their position as log leaders in League One.