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09/14/2007 - Bridgeview, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Red Bull New York and the Chicago Fire square off for the third and final time this season in a Major League Soccer fixture Saturday at Toyota Park.
The teams just played each other on Sept. 1 - a 1-0 New York win at Giants Stadium - so there should be little mystery involved with this game.
The Fire will probably pack it in, in an effort to limit the Red Bulls chances while using its talented trio of attackers - Chris Rolfe, Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Paulo Wanchope - in a counter-attacking role and on set pieces.
"Their focus as a group is they establish a block of players that are very hard to break down," New York coach Bruce Arena said. "They have seven or eight players behind the ball which makes it hard to play against them. It's no secret that the games they play are generally 1-0. I think there is a reason for that. I think they do a pretty good job of trying to keep Wanchope, Blanco and Rolfe up high and try and bring defenders. They try to take advantage of the opportunities they get the run of play on the counter attack. They can be very offensive at times, they have the ability to go forward with such fine players as Wanchope, Blanco and Rolfe."
That strategy has worked well in recent games for the Fire, who have crept into the eighth and final playoff spot with seven games remaining since the addition of Blanco, among others.
"They have been able to bring in a number of players, specifically Blanco, Wanchope and now with the addition of (defender) Wilman Conde," Arena said. "I think they are very good players. Over the last five or six games they have gotten a number of points and some good results. I think they are a good team."
The Red Bulls needed a Juan Pablo Angel goal on one of their only chances in the game to earn the victory over the Fire in their last meeting. That victory has helped New York stay in a strong position to make the playoffs. It is currently in the sixth position, four points up on Chicago.
"It is extremely disappointing that at the end we limited Juan (Pablo Angel) to one chance and it was a goal and we also limited (Dane) Richards to one cross the whole game," Chicago coach Juan Carlos Osorio said after the New York loss. "They didn't have many goal scoring opportunities so it was disappointing. We know that we can play better offensively and we need to create more chances and just keep working. Hopefully, when we play them back at our place, it will be a different game."
The teams are coming off opposite results in their most recent fixtures, with New York being dominated 3-0 at CD Chivas USA and the Fire earning a 1-0 victory at Columbus, thanks to a goal by Wanchope.
"All week we worked very hard on the tactical side of things because we knew that today could be the decisive moment for us," Osorio said. "I think it worked well for us today. We limited a very good team going forward to few chances and we waited patiently for our chance and when it came our way, Paulo [Wanchope] put it in very well."
"It was one of those games," Arena said of the Chivas loss. "I guess we obviously shot ourselves on the foot. Give them credit, they capitalized on the mistakes we made, they won the game. I think we actually played pretty well in spurts and it was a very lopsided score given the quality of play. I think we created most of the chances in the game and made some individual mistakes that resulted in goals."
The Red Bulls will look to rebound Saturday, and could welcome back injured striker Jozy Altidore, who has been out since before the last Chicago fixture with what the team is calling "a lower left leg injury."
"He is day-to-day. We haven't made any decision on him at this time," Arena said Thursday.
The New York midfield could also see a shakeup. Dema Kovalenko, one of the better two-way players on the team, has seen limited action this season with injuries and after a recent car accident, but should be fit to see extended minutes Saturday.
"We haven't decided on a lineup for the game, but Dema could play more than he did in the last game," Arena said.
Also, midfielder Clint Mathis, who is third on the team in scoring behind Angel and Altidore, could miss the game because of personal reasons.
"(He's) day-to-day with personal reasons. I'm not going to get into it, it is a family thing," Arena added.
The Fire will be without midfielder Justin Mapp with an ankle injury while midfielders Chris Armas and Ivan Guerrero should play even though they are nursing injuries.
After Saturday's fixture, New York hosts Eastern rival New England next Saturday while Chicago travels to Dallas on Thursday.
<< Simpson named suspect in casino robbery
Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Las Vegas police questioned former football
star O.J. Simpson and declared him a suspect Friday in a hotel room
armed robbery, involving sports memorabilia at The Palace Station Casino.
The form
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Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tiger Woods used a stellar front nine Friday to
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season, has been on the DL since
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Lorraine, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nancy will try to continue its
undefeated start on Saturday when it travels to the Stade Felix-Bollaert to
play Lens.
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Denmark's Group D climb must start with New Zealand >>
Wuhan, China (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After dropping its opener to China on a late
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trails China and
Norway, Australia to battle for Group C lead >>
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line on Saturday when Australia meets Norway in the second game for both
teams.
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Hosts China, Brazil look to lock up berth in quarters >>
Wuhan, China (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - China opened its World Cup with a dramatic win
over Denmark and would all but lock up a spot in the quarterfinals with a win
or a tie against Brazil on Saturday.
China built a two-goal lead against Denmark i
United acquires Monteiro from Fire >>
Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - D.C. United announced Friday the club has
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2008 MLS SuperDraft pick. Uniteds roster included an open developmental spot
for the
Two playoff teams from 2007 take center stage on the NFL Network Sunday night in a Week 2 NFL betting match-up when the (0-1) New England Patriots betting head south to Florida for a contest with the (1-0) Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
New England HC Bill Belichick couldn’t care less about the way his team plays in the preseason. With a chance to tie last week’s game with the Baltimore Ravens betting, He elected to go for the two-point conversion and outright victory. The conversion failed, and the Pats ended up falling to the Ravens by a 16-15 final count.
New England rolled off twelve unanswered points to give it a chance at securing the victory, but it never threatened to cover the 3.5-point spread. NFL bettors saw this one coming, as they bet the Ravens down from +6 to +3.5 as the week progressed. QB Tom Brady didn’t take part in the Patriots first preseason clash, but could see action this weekend.
His three replacements all put up embarrassing numbers. They went a combined 17 for 33, and threw three interceptions and no touchdowns. The New England defense was encouraging, as they held the Ravens to 2/12 third down conversions and surrendered just ten first downs. That ‘D’ should be bolstered with the addition of former Bucs and Denver Broncos betting safety John Lynch, who could make his Patriots debut on Sunday against his former mates.
HC Jon Gruden had to be impressed with the way his Bucs played on both sides of the ball in their dominating 17-6 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 1’s NFL pre-season betting action. Bucs bettors were quite happy with the effort, as they made a mockery of the fact that they were underdogs in the game.
The logjam at the quarterback position didn’t get any easier to separate for Gruden, as all four of his QBs had positive experiences in the first exhibition of 2008. The four combined to complete 28 of their 40 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown, and that was without starting QB Jeff Garcia in the lineup.
RB Michael Bennett had 19 carries and four receptions, totaling 90 yards and a touchdown. Expect to see more of Bennett, Kenneth Darby, and Earnest Graham, as they all compete for playing time with Warrick Dunn in the backfield this season. Defensively, the Bucs recorded four sacks and held the Fins offense in check all day.
First round draft pick Aqib Talib was impressive in the secondary, recording a tackle and two pass defenses in his debut. Don’t be surprised to see Talib in the starting lineup opposite Ronde Barber for the Bucs in ’08.
The betting trends suggest that NFL bettors should be backing the Bucs in this intra-conference exhibition.
These two teams hooked up last year in Tampa Bay, with the Bucs winning that game 13-10. The Buccaneers have only lost one preseason game at home dating back to the beginning of the ’05 preseason. The Patriots have had a mixed bag of results in their recent exhibitions. They have gone 2-2 ATS and SU each of the last three years.
New England currently sits as modest 1-point favorites in this preseason showdown with the ‘total’ now sitting at 34.5.
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Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"
A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.
In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.
"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"
Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.
This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.
Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.
In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.
No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.
And that's all any bettor can ask for.
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