Barca, Real title race heads to final week

Soccer Betting Lines

05/08/2010 - Seville, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lionel Messi scored his La Liga-leading 32nd goal Saturday, and Barcelona held off Sevilla 3-2 to maintain a one-point lead over Real Madrid atop the standings entering the final week of the season.

Bojan Krkic and Pedro also scored for Barca, which built a three-goal lead at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan and held on against 10-man Sevilla. Frederic Kanoute and Luis Fabiano scored two minutes apart in the second for Sevilla.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his sixth goal in his last three games, leading Real Madrid to a 5-1 win over 10-man Athletic Bilbao at the Bernabeu.

Barcelona took control of the match inside five minutes, when Messi finished a pass from Maxwell for the opener. Messi played Maxwell's short chip pass down off his chest, made a touch with his left foot and fired into the bottom right from 16 yards.

Barca doubled the lead before the half-hour mark, as Xavi put Krkic through on a first-time pass, and Krkic held off Sevilla's Abdoulay Konko to slot back to the far post in the 28th.

Konko was sent off in the 56th after receiving his second yellow, and Messi set up Pedro's goal in the 62nd when his shot was blocked at the top of the box. The rebound rolled to Pedro, who scored from the top of the area.

Fabiano set up Kanoute's goal in the 69th, and scored his own in the 71st, but short-handed Sevilla couldn't finish the comeback. Sevilla heads into the last week of the season in a battle with Mallorca for fourth and a Champions League berth. Sevilla is currently fourth, one points ahead of Mallorca.

In Madrid, Ronaldo converted a penalty kick in the 22nd after a red card to Bilbao's Fernando Amorebieta, but Real failed to hold the edge until halftime.

Francisco Yeste found the bottom left in the 41st from the top of the box, and Athletic pulled level to leave Real's title hopes in jeopardy.

Bilbao kept the match level at 1-1 for nearly 30 minutes, but Gonzalo Higuain scored in the 73rd minute for his team-high 27th goal, and Sergio Ramos, Karim Benzema and Marcelo added goals in the final 15 minutes.

Riki scored in the 68th as Deportivo edged Mallorca 1-0. Mallorca remained one point behind Sevilla, as the teams battle for either a Champions League place or a Europa League berth in the final week.

Giuseppe Rossi and Joseba Llorente scored as Villarreal topped Valencia 2-0 to enter the final week in position to earn a Europa League berth. Villarreal is level on points with Getafe for sixth place.

Roberto Soldado and Pedro Leon scored as Getafe topped Malaga 2-1 to maintain pace with Villarreal.

Malaga enters the final weekend as one of five teams still fighting to avoid relegation. Malaga is level on points with Racing, Valladolid and Tenerife. Xerez is three points behind the group in last, with all five teams still in danger.

Also Saturday, Xerez edged Real Zaragoza 3-2, Gijon tied Atletico Madrid 1-1, Espanyol defeated Osasuna 2-1, Valladolid edged Racing 2-1, and Tenerife tied Almeria 2-2.

Wrollingstone Soccer Betting News

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2007 online football betting Preview

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.

2007 College Football Betting Preview

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.

Las Vegas Sports Lines

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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