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03/19/2010 - Frankfurt, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bayern Munich opens a "decisive" stretch Saturday, according to coach Louis van Gaal, although the trip to Eintracht is likely to be the easiest match over the next three weeks.
Bayern follows the trip to Eintracht with a match against current second-place Bundesliga side Schalke in the Pokal Cup semifinals Wednesday.
Stuttgart, Schalke, and Bayer Leverkusen follow in league games, on top of two Champions League quarterfinal matches against Manchester United, all in an 18- day span.
"March and April are the decisive months," Van Gaal said on Bayern's website.
Bayern is coming off what Van Gaal described as a "slightly lucky win" against Freiburg last weekend, but the 2-1 victory over the struggling German side was just days after Munich sealed its spot in the Champions League quarters.
Arjen Robben rescued Bayern against Freiburg with a pair of second-half goals, and sent his side back to the top of the league after Schalke was on top for a day.
Van Gaal still has problems with Mario Gomez and Martin Demichelis out against Eintracht, and Franck Ribery a question mark.
However, Bastian Schweinsteiger returns from a one-match suspension, and Hamit Altintop is recovered from the flu.
"We have more fit players again," Robben said.
Bayern has lost just once in its last 19 matches, a 3-2 loss at Fiorentina in the second leg of the Round of 16 in the Champions League, but the result was enough send it through on away goals with the aggregate level at 4.
With Schalke just two points behind, Van Gaal can't afford to lose any points this week with the tough stretch ahead. A win in Frankfurt could be even more important with Schalke at fifth-place Hamburg on Sunday, and third-place Bayer at fourth-place Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.
If Schalke and Leverkusen fall, Bayern could pull five and six points clear of its top two challengers.
Eintracht is without a number of players, including Ioannis Amanatidis, Zlatan Bajramovic,Nikos Liberopoulos, and Aleksandar Vasoski through injury, and Maik Franz, Patrick Ochs, and Selim Teber through suspension.
Eintracht coach Michael Skibbe knows the absences hurt his clubs chances, but the 10th-place side has no other options.
"It's obvious who are the favorites and who are the underdogs. But we mustn't abandon our passion for playing football," Skibbe said on Bayern's website.
On Friday, Koln tied Monchengladbach 1-1 to open the weekend matches.
Also Saturday, Stuttgart hosts Hannover, Werder Bremen hosts Bochum, Nurnberg hosts Hoffenheim, and Freiburg hosts Mainz Also Sunday, Wolfsburg hosts Hertha Berlin.
<< Portsmouth's Brown upset Gerrard wasn't punished
Portsmouth, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Portsmouth midfielder Michael Brown is
flabbergasted by the Football Association's failure to suspend Steven Gerrard
following the Liverpool captain's off-the-ball challenge on him Monday.
Gerrard ap
<< Bayern's Schweinsteiger cools Blues talk
Munich, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bayern Munich midfielder Bastian
Schweinsteiger has denied recent reports suggesting he will be moving to
Chelsea at the end of this season.
The 25-year-old was one of the names mentione
<< Ramsey, English help Missouri get past Clemson
Buffalo, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Keith Ramsey and Kim English each poured in 20
points, as the Missouri Tigers used a big run in the second half to take down
the Clemson Tigers, 86-78, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
English made
<< Leuer's late bucket helps Wisconsin survive Wofford
Jacksonville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jon Leuer hit an open jumper with 17
seconds remaining, and Wisconsin escaped with a 53-49 win over Wofford in the
first round of the East Region.
Leuer finished with game-best 20 points and eig
United's Ferguson calls FA 'dysfunctional' >>
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester United manager Sir Alex
Ferguson has blasted the Football Association's disciplinary system after
Steven Gerrard escaped punishment for the second time in a week.
The Liverpool cap
City's Mancini hopes Bridge plays for England >>
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini
hopes he can persuade Wayne Bridge to change his mind and put himself up for
England selection at this summer's World Cup finals in South Africa.
The former
Logano claims first Cup pole at Bristol >>
Bristol, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Joey Logano became a first-time pole winner in
the Sprint Cup Series after turning the fastest lap in Friday's qualifying for
the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Logano, the 2009 Sprint Cup rookie of
Brown, Dixon help Pitt dominate Oakland >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gilbert Brown and Jermaine Dixon each
finished with 17 points to lead Pittsburgh to an 89-66 rout of Oakland in the
first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Nasir Robinson and Brad Wanamaker each had 13
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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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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