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11/02/2007 - Foxborough, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Red Bulls and New England Revolution will square off in the second leg of their Eastern Conference Semifinal Series at Gillette Stadium on Saturday to decide who hosts the Major League Soccer Eastern Conference final on Thursday.
This comes after the teams battled to a scoreless draw in the first leg at Giants Stadium last Saturday.
"Personally, it's very frustrating," New York's Jozy Altidore said of not scoring a goal in the first leg. "I thought we controlled the flow of the game. They had bits and pieces in the second half. Still, we came out pretty well, and personally, it's a little disappointing, but we did well enough and we didn't lose. It's a do or die game now in New England. The way they played, the demeanor, the way they were moving the ball around, they weren't trying to go for it at all so you could tell that from the beginning, but credit them, they did what they had to do."
Third-seeded New York faces long odds, with the second-seeded Revolution a playoff tested team that is tough to beat at home. Since Gillette Stadium opened in 2002, the Revs are 6-0-3 in MLS playoff matches there and haven't lost a home playoff game since 1997. They will be gunning for their fifth- straight appearance in the Eastern final.
"If we don't win at home, we don't deserve to go through (to the conference finals)," New England defender Jay Heaps said.
Add that to the lack of playoff success of the Red Bulls - four straight first-round exits - and New York fans are less than optimistic about their team's chances.
"We're confident," Revolution midfielder Steve Ralston told The Boston Globe. "We've been in this situation before and we know how to get it done. We just need to go home and win. We'll be the aggressors.
If the Red Bulls are going to advance, they will need more production from their midfield than in the first leg. The team has the talent up front in MVP candidate Juan Pablo Angel and Jozy Altidore, among others, but if they don't get good services they will be neutralized again.
Saturday's fixture doesn't figure to be as tight as the first leg, as New England will more than likely open up the offense, as it is known to do at home, and count on its talented offensive players to outscore New York.
"It's the reason you position yourself, to get that second game at home," Revs goalkeeper Matt Reis said. "We always seem to play more attacking soccer at home."
The Revs will count on its talented strikers, Taylor Twellman and Pat Noonan, to spearhead that attack.
The winner of the total goals series will host fourth-seeded Chicago - which knocked off No. 1 seed D.C. United on Thursday - for the right to represent the East in the MLS Cup Championship. The Fire have already let it be known who they would rather play, hoping to get some revenge on New England for knocking them out of the playoffs last season.
"I personally kind of want to play New England (in the conference final)," Fire forward Chad Barrett said. "Exact a little revenge (after the Fire were knocked out of the playoffs by the Revs in penalty kicks last season). I wasn't in the game last year so we'll see."
"I think we will do well, regardless of what team we play," Fire attacker Chris Rolfe said. "Obviously it would be nice to play New England because they knocked us out last year and they knocked us my first year, too. So it would be good to get some revenge on them."
<< Ex-Barca star Koeman takes over at Valencia
Valencia, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Valencia introduced Ronald Koeman as its
new manager Friday, signing the former PSV boss to a three-year contract.
"I come very motivated to Valencia CF," said Koeman, a former Dutch defender.
Koeman
<< Verplank takes overs top spot at Disney World
Lake Buena Vista, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Scott Verplank fired his second
straight six-under 66 Friday to move to the top of the leaderboard at the
Children's Miracle Network Classic.
Verplank, whose win at Byron Nelson Champion
<< New Hampshire International Speedway sold
Fort Worth, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bruton Smith, chairman of Speedway
Motorsports Inc., agreed to purchase New Hampshire International Speedway from
Bob and Gary Bahre for $340 million in cash, NASCAR announced Friday.
The deal is
<< Real Madrid "far" from reaching its limit
Seville, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Although Real Madrid is off to another great
start, coach Bernd Schuster said Friday "we are far from reaching our limit."
The defending La Liga champions, who sit atop the standings with a four-point
lead,
Reutimann still hot, wins Busch pole in Texas >>
Fort Worth, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Last week's Busch Series race winner David
Reutimann edged Tony Stewart for the pole for Saturday afternoon's O'Reilly
Challenge at the Texas Motor Speedway. The No.99 Toyota driver circled the
1.5-mil
Duncan signs extension >>
San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Antonio Spurs have signed All-Star
forward/center Tim Duncan to a contract extension.
The San Antonio Express-News reported the deal to be a two-year extension
worth $40 million. It will k
Mariners decline options on Guillen and Reitsma >>
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Seattle Mariners declined to pick up the
2008 options on outfielder Jose Guillen and right-handed pitcher Chris
Reitsma on Friday.
"Declining the options on Jose and Chris gives us more flexibil
Davenport into semifinals at Bell Challenge >>
Quebec City, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - American Lindsay Davenport continued her
push to a second title this year with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Frenchwoman
Stephanie Foretz in the quarterfinals at the $175,000 Bell Challenge.
Appearing in
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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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
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