Galaxy keep hope alive with win at Houston

Soccer Betting Lines

10/07/2007 - Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Galaxy continued their amazing comeback Sunday at defending Major League Soccer champion Houston, earning a 2-1 victory to stretch their unbeaten run to five games.

After former Galaxy forward Nate Jaqua scored just 21 minutes in to give the home Dynamo the early lead, Carlos Pavon - who's signing earlier this season prompted the trade of Jaqua to Houston - evened the score in first-half stoppage time. Gavin Glinton then scored the game-winner 13 minutes from time to keep L.A.'s playoff hopes alive.

The Galaxy, written off in the playoff race about three weeks ago, have rattled off four straight wins, including the last three on the road, to make it interesting down the stretch. Now, with three games remaining, L.A. is just six points out of the last playoff spot, currently occupied by the Chicago Fire. Kansas City is just one point clear in the seventh spot, meaning its last two games - at Red Bull New York and at FC Dallas - hold that much more importance.

The Galaxy finish out the regular season with home games against Toronto and New York and a road fixture at Chicago on the last day of the regular season that could decide the final playoff spot.

With the loss, Houston's three-game winning streak and six-game unbeaten streak was halted, while its chance at earning the West's top seed in the playoffs took a hit. CD Chivas USA now holds a three point lead with a game in hand.

The Galaxy, who have been guilty of playing some pretty shaky defense during stretches this season - as evidenced by their league-high 45 goals allowed - were guilty again on Jaqua's goal. Joseph Ngwenya controlled the ball on the right flank and played a low cross into the Galaxy penalty area, but after a defender whiffed on a clearance and two others collapsed on Dwayne De Rosario, the ball found a wide-open Jaqua, back-door. He made no mistake on the chance, burying in past Joe Cannon from 10 yards out for his seventh goal of the season.

Landon Donovan, who was just named the Honda Player of the Year for a record fourth time on Friday, set up Pavon on the equalizer, seconds before the break. He took control of the ball in the center of the field in the offensive third, and with defenders closing in, played a ball into space to on onrushing Pavon, who buried a left-footed rocket into the far post corner, past Pat Onstad for his third goal of the campaign.

The teams traded chances in the second half, but the Galaxy were able to get the go-ahead score against the run of play. With a free kick from about 35 yards out, Donovan played a ball to the right side of the Houston penalty area that was headed across the box by Cobi Jones. Glinton then headed the ball past Onstad for his fourth goal of the season and second game-winning header during the Galaxy's current winning streak.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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