05/09/2008 - Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The back-to-back defending Major League Soccer Cup champion Houston Dynamo will be gunning for their first win of the 2008 season on Saturday night when they host the Colorado Rapids.
The struggling Dynamo are currently tied with the expansion San Jose Earthquakes for last place in the entire league, with just four points after six contests while Colorado is tied atop the Western table with nine points.
"As far as four points out of six games, four ties, and you know if you look at it, you play those games a little different," Houston coach Dominic Kinnear said. "You may come out with more points, so just the bounces going our way, the goalkeeper making some good saves, good defending, some calls that the referees that some put in their pocket that benefit you, and we're just not getting the right bounce. But the effort and the attitude of the guys are spot on and it's never in question. And that message is always passed on from the coaching staff."
The Dynamo are coming off a scoreless draw with Chivas USA in their last league fixture, and while the team's early season defensive woes seem to have been corrected, their offense is second-to-last in the league.
"Frustrating night, a lot of chances, need a goal to break us out of our slump; obviously, they came here for a reason, tie the game, get a point," Kinnear said after the draw with Chivas USA.
"We're getting a half inch away from scoring, but we are a strong team mentally and physically," Houston midfielder Corey Ashe said.
The Rapids, on the other hand, are coming off a win over D.C. United in which former D.C. midfielder Christian Gomez controlled the flow of the game from his central role on the Rapids' squad while pitching in two assists in a 2-0 win.
"We brought (Christian Gomez) here with the expectations that he would be the player that we saw out there today," Colorado coach Fernando Clavijo said after the win. "When he plays with two strikers he can move around the field. He will start the play and that is what he were looking for."
The Rapids switched to a two forward formation after using a lone forward with Gomez as an underneath forward for the first five games of the season. The strategy seemed to work as the win snapped a two game losing streak and generated more offense for the Rocky Mountain club. Omar Cummings and Tom McManus manned the forward positions with Gomez filling a more familiar attacking midfield role.
"If you look at today, everybody works hard," Rapids goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul said after the win. "If you play 4-5-1, the striker cannot do everything. He cannot run, run, run. The next thing you know, he's going to stop working. But when you got two guys, one runs, one rests, and we have the midfield, like (Gomez), free to do passes and all those things. So this is a challenge for us."
"Two forwards are much more dangerous than one forward," Rapids forward Herculez Gomez said. "It maximizes Christian's strengths. He'll be the first one to tell you he doesn't feel comfortable playing up front. With two forwards there was more movement. It made things easier on everybody, defenders and midfielders, created more space, more opportunities. Especially in our pitch, it got us pressuring in the right places."
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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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