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07/21/2007 - Foxborough, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of first place teams will take the field Sunday night at Gillette Stadium as the Houston Dynamo battle the New England Revolution.
The defending Major League Soccer champion Dynamo lead the Western Division by three points over FC Dallas, while the Revs hold a modest one-point edge over Kansas City for the top spot in the East.
Houston is hoping to extend its unbeaten streak to 11 games. The club has a league-high 33 points and has not walked off the pitch without any points since May 27, at D.C.
As for the Revolution, they are trying to stay undefeated in the month of July after shutting out the Red Bulls on the 14th, and splitting the points with Chivas on the 7th.
New England is trying to win the season series between the two teams after already getting by Houston, 1-0, back on May 19, in the only other scheduled meeting of 2007.
Shalrie Joseph who scored the sole goal for the Revs in the other encounter with Houston this season, is nursing a quad strain, but is expected to play.
Taylor Twellman will lead the New England offense on the field with his seven goals. However, finding the back of the net on Sunday will not be easy as Houston has surrendered a league-low 10 goals in 18 matches so far this season.
Pat Onstad, who is expected to be in the net for Houston, will be trying to post his eighth shutout of the season. As a team, the Dynamo have recorded seven straight shutouts, and have not yielded a goal since a 2-1 victory at Columbus on June 10.
New England will have home-field advantage though, only losing once in seven matches in Foxborough this season. In fact, New England has collected three or more goals in five of those seven home outings.
Matt Reis, who has started every game this season between the posts for the Revs, will be attempting to grab his seventh blanking of the season.
The Revs have never lost to Houston in three all-time, regular season matches.
<< Fisher returns to Lakers
El Segundo, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Derek Fisher, who was released from his
contract with the Utah Jazz in early July so that he could seek the proper
medical care for his 11-month-old daughter fighting eye cancer, signed with
the Los
<< British Open Second Round News & Notes
Carnoustie, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It has been quite a golfing week for
Spain.
On Monday, Seve Ballesteros, a three-time champion, and Spain's greatest
golfer in history, announced his retirement from competitive golf. He had be
<< Moya upended in quarters of Dutch Open
Amersfoort, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Third-seeded Carlos Moya was
upset in three sets by Werner Eschauer in quarterfinals action at the Dutch
Open on Friday.
Eschauer, an Austrian, survived a first-set tiebreaker loss, and
<< Yashin headed to Russian Super League
Yaroslavl, Russia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former New York Islander Alexei Yashin
agreed to a contract to play next season with Locomotiv Yaroslavl of the
Russian Super League on Friday.
Yashin, who had the last four seasons of his 10-
Conference USA - Title game rematch? >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two years ago, Conference USA won just
11% (two of 19) of its games vs. BCS schools, but finished 12-9 ATS. Last
season was an improved campaign with a 19% winning percentage against BCS
teams with five win
TFC aiming to end road trip on winning note at Crew >>
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Toronto FC concludes its six-game road trip on
Sunday with a visit to Crew Stadium to take on the Columbus Crew.
The Canadian side is 1-1-3 on its current trip, including a 0-0 draw last time
out against the
Colorado hopes for Rapid improvement in K.C. >>
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Kansas City Wizards won for the first
time in seven games last week, and will try to continue their winning ways on
Sunday when the club hosts the struggling Colorado Rapids at Arrowhead
Stadium
Ramirez, Cubs down Diamondbacks >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aramis Ramirez drove in the tying run and
scored the go-ahead run in the sixth inning, and later added a three-run homer
as the red-hot Chicago Cubs defeated the struggling Arizona Diamondbacks, 6-2,
in the
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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