Good Morning ☀️,

It’s Lucas here, your Chief Predictions Officer at What Are the Odds?

Another day, another massive drop of World Cup games. Today, we’ve got five of ‘em.

And if you thought that seemed like a day that’s the opposite of boring, just wait until you see what’s coming up tomorrow, where one team faces what could be one of the weirdest days in World Cup history. But we’ll get to that in a moment.

First, here’s what’s coming up in today’s special World Cup edition of What Are the Odds?

What’s ahead in today’s edition:

• The most awkward away-but-not-away game ever. 😬

• A complete match schedule for all of today’s action. 🗓️

• Our top pick of the day. ✅

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🇦🇺 Australia vs. 🇹🇷 Türkiye

• Time: 12:00 ET

• Venue: BC Place

• Location: Vancouver, British Columbia

🇩🇪 Germany vs. 🇨🇼 Curaçao

• Time: 13:00 ET

• Venue: NRG Stadium

• Location: Houston

🇳🇱 Netherlands vs. 🇯🇵 Japan

• Time: 16:00 ET

• Venue: AT&T Stadium

• Location: Arlington, Texas

🇨🇮 Ivory Coast vs. 🇪🇨 Ecuador

• Time: 19:00 ET

• Venue: Lincoln Financial Field

• Location: Philadelphia

🇸🇪 Sweden vs. 🇹🇳 Tunisia

• Time: 20:00 ET

• Venue: Estadio BBVA

• Location: Monterrey, Mexico

Want to get the best odds on today’s matches?

As most of you probably know by now, the USA is at war with Iran. Actually, scratch that — the official word is that it’s actually conflict practice… as much as that sounds like a case of potato-patata.

Anyway, most of you probably also know that tomorrow, Iran will play its first match at this year’s World Cup. And that means, things are potentially about to get really, really awkward.

Let’s start with one of the simpler facts. Iran is the first country ever to play a World Cup in a host nation with which its actively engaged in war — uh, I mean, “conflict practice” — with.

That already makes this one a potentially awkward situation. But you probably already know the drill here — visa problems, annoying logistics, and fan access issues have all been heavily reported on.

What we’ve seen less reporting about is the very peculiar situation that’s coming up in tomorrow’s Iran vs New Zealand game.

For those who don’t know, California — as in California, USA — has one of the biggest Iranian populations in the world, with an estimated 700,000 Iranians calling California home. Some have even nicknamed Los Angeles “Tehrangeles”.

Also, tomorrow’s Iran vs New Zealand match just so happens to be taking place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

So that’s good news for Iran, right? After all, it’s basically a home game.

Well, not so fast.

If the reports are accurate, the entire event could end up being a little bit awkward for the Iranians. In short, the entire community is somewhat split between competing allegiances.

On the one hand, of course plenty of Iranians are excited to see their home nation compete at the World Cup. But, at the same time, there’s a large segment of the community who sees the team as being too closely associated with the Iranian state, and have even gone so far as to say that they intend to boycott or protest the game.

But things only get messier from there. You’ve got Iranians who want to protest, but are afraid the regime will retaliate against their relatives back home. You’ve got others who have safety concerns over whether Iran’s matches could become flashpoints. And then, you’ve got some fans that seem to have a foot in both camps.

Long story short, tomorrow could be a very awkward situation for an Iran team that’s kinda playing at home given California’s massive Iranian population. But they might also find themselves facing one of the more hostile environments they’ll face at this year’s World Cup.

⚽ Germany vs Curaçao
🏟️ 2026 FIFA World Cup
📅 Saturday 14 June; 19:00 (Europe/Paris)

• Why we’re watching: “Sure things” are pretty rare at the World Cup level. So when one shows up, we jump on it.

• Top 3 Stats:

  • Germany is currently #10 in the FIFA World Rankings.

  • Curaçao is currently #82 in the FIFA World Rankings.

  • Curaçao is the smallest nation to ever reach a World Cup.
    

• CXSports says: With Curaçao being a humble nation of just 160,000 people with a FIFA ranking that has them listed all the way back in #82, it almost seems like cruel and unusual punishment to schedule them against Germany for their first World Cup game. And maybe that makes us a little cruel and unusual for selecting this as our top pick of the day. But hey, can you blame us? You gotta take the easy wins when they come your way. And boy oh boy, this should be an easy win.
  
  To summarize this game in a sentence, Germany should win this one. The only real question is “by how much?” So let’s make an effort to answer that, starting with some cold hard stats. 
  
  In their last five games, Germany has five victories, 18 goals scored (that’s 3.60 goals per game!), and just 5 conceded. Highlights include a 6-0 victory over Slovakia, 4-0 over Finland, and a decent 2-1 away-from-home warm-up victory over one of this year’s host nations — the good ol’ USA.
  
  As for Curacao, their performance has been a little less muted, with just a single victory against Aruba (not that that’s anything to be proud of — Aruba’s #189 in the FIFA rankings). The balance of matches ended in 3 losses and a single draw, with an aggregate score of 6-12. And if you thought that looked bad, it only gets worse. Four of Curaçao’s goals were scored against Aruba (#189 in the FIFA rankings, remember). And if we eliminate that game from the tally, Curacao’s aggregate suddenly looks much, much worse at 2-12. That’s right — six goals conceded for every goal scored.
  
  So, what does all this tell us? Well, between Germany’s strong attack (3.6 scored per game in their last 5) and Curaçao’s poor defense and equally poor attack, we can probably say there’s a good chance Germany will at least be hitting its recent goal-scoring average, all while keeping Curaçao’s own tally to zero.

• Score prediction: 4-0 for Germany

Bet Option #1

• Bet: Germany Victory

• Odds Range: 1.01-1.09

Bet Option #2

• Bet: Both Teams to Score (No)

• Odds Range: 1.30-1.52

Make your sportsbook work for you!

That’s enough for today. It’s time for us to get ready to enjoy today’s World Cup action. But don’t worry, we’ll be back tomorrow with plenty more of the same.

Until then, make the most of today’s World Cup action. There’s plenty to enjoy.