L.A. continues whirl-wind schedule in Salt Lake City

Soccer Betting Lines

09/18/2007 - Salt Lake City, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Galaxy continue their whirl-wind tour of Major League Soccer cities Wednesday when they play Real Salt Lake at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The match will be the Galaxy's 11th in league play since Aug. 5, with the MLS schedule maker hoping to give every market in the country a chance to see David Beckham and the his L.A. teammates. That hasn't been the case as the English superstar has been out with a knee injury since the SuperLiga final on Aug. 29, as well as a host of other Galaxy players being in and out of the lineup with various injuries.

"We have a game on Wednesday. I know that. It's on the schedule. We have to go and obviously get a win," Galaxy coach Frank Yallop said after his team's 3-1 loss Sunday to Houston.

Yallop is just trying to get through his team's final eight games, with realistic chances of making the playoffs slipping away loss by loss. The Galaxy have lost eight of their last nine league fixtures and are currently last in the league with just 17 points.

"Talk about a long year - I keep saying that, but we are so naive in certain spots," Yallop said of his team giving up two goals on suspect plays to Houston. "We are so naive with our fight and our will to do better. We just expect that another goal has gone in and guys just don't take responsibility. A lot of times, you have to make sure that you feel like something is your fault, and a lot of guys don't. They think that the players think that maybe they could have done in a situation, but they don't take responsibility and that's difficult."

"I've worked with Frank for the (Canadian) national team and in San Jose," Houston head coach Dominic Kinnear said. "He just has to keep his head up. I feel for him because I know the quality of coach he is and he doesn't deserve to get all these losses."

Real Salt Lake isn't in much better shape, just two points clear of the Galaxy in the Western table, but have been showing signs of life after some late season roster moves.

They are coming off a 0-0 tie at Toronto FC, but feel good after forward Fabian Espindola received a red card in the first half of the contest and the team was still hung on for the point on the road.

"We put ourselves in a tough position getting that red card in the first half and we were 60 minutes down a man, but that said we showed a lot of character a lot of fight, and we got out of here with a result," RSL forward Alecko Eskandarian said.

TFC actually peppered goalkeeper Nick Rimando with a team record in shots and shots on goal in an effort to break out of their league-record goalless streak, but the veteran goalkeeper stopped all shots in one of his more impressive performances of the season.

"That's what happens when you go a man down," Rimando said of the number of shots he faced. "You've got to expect that it's going to be a battle and that's what it was. They came after us, you know their fans are amazing, they gave them a little boost and they had their chances but we fought and we came out with a point, on an away game, playing here in Toronto and that's big for us."

"They were knocking on the door all day, and searching for that elusive goal," RSL defender Eddie Pope said. "And, went down a man - our backs were against the wall and they just came at us. Certainly we could have crumbled at some point and given up a goal at some point, but we held together, stuck together we were able to fight, scratch ... all that stuff and get out of here with a point."

That is exactly what L.A. will be trying to do Wednesday in an effort to climb out of the Western basement.

After Wednesday's match, the Galaxy host FC Dallas on Sunday while Real Salt lake hosts Colorado a day earlier.

Wdogpile Soccer Betting News

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FOOTBALL BETTING LINES

NFL Football Sports Betting

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.

You can find these lines and all of the NFL betting lines , so be sure to login and get your wagers down before kickoff!

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines .
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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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