09/05/2008 - Bridgeview, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Red Bulls and the Chicago Fire renew their Eastern Conference rivalry in Major League Soccer action on Saturday at Toyota Park.
A lot has changed for both teams since the Fire went to New York and dominated the Red Bulls, 5-1, on May 25. Since then there have been numerous roster changes as well as a change in the fortunes of the clubs.
At that time the Fire were tops in the league, but have since fallen to third in the East by going 4-5-4. At that time the Red Bulls were last in the East, but have since climbed into a tie for fourth, just three back of the Fire and eight back of league-leading Columbus. New York has gone 5-4-5 since that May 25 game and currently holds the last spot in the 2008 MLS Cup playoffs.
"Obviously, it's a very important game for us," New York coach Juan Carlos Osorio said. "Three points separates the two clubs at the moment. It's getting really tight up in the table, so this is a great opportunity to shorten that distance and hopefully, we manage to do that this weekend."
The Red Bulls (8-6-8) are currently on a six-game unbeaten streak, with a three-game winning streak snapped with a scoreless draw at D.C. United - the team New York is tied with in the East - last week.
"I think we did enough to win the three points but in a way we let them off the hook," Osorio said after the D.C. game. "But I'm very pleased to have a clean sheet and contained a very good team going forward, especially at home. A clean sheet will prove to be very good for us and for what we're trying to do here."
The Fire (10-7-5) are coming off a 2-1 loss at Houston in which they were completely dominated by the Dynamo's suffocating defense.
"We know Houston is a very good team," Fire coach Denis Hamlett said. "We knew that they were going to come out and compete. They're at home, and they're a team that's been on a good roll lately, so we felt that it was a big challenge for us to come down here and try to get some points. I was happy with our group here. We competed until the end."
Both teams will be missing key players on Saturday, with Red Bulls midfielder Jorge Rojas and defender Andrew Boyens on international duty. Defender Kevin Goldthwaite will also miss the game due to yellow card accumulation. The Fire will be without midfielders Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Marco Papa and defender Gonzalo Segares because of international duty and forward Patrick Nyarko because of injury.
"I can only say that Cuauhtemoc is a very good player, very important player for them," Osorio said of the Mexican international missing the game. "But at the same token, we're missing Jorge Rojas so I would rather concentrate how to replace our player and try to get out of our squad the most we have as opposed to try to second-guess what they will try to do."
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In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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