Real Salt Lake makes Union pay for mistakes

Soccer Betting Lines

05/08/2010 - Sandy, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kyle Beckerman and Jamison Olave took advantage of defensive mistakes by Philadelphia to score their second goals of the year, and Real Salt Lake beat the Union 3-0 on Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium.

Alvaro Saborio also scored his second goal of the year for Real (3-3-1), which remained unbeaten at home with its second win in three matches.

Philadelphia (1-0-5), which has been haunted by mistakes all season, lost its fourth straight and for the fifth time in as many road matches.

After the Union's Roger Torres was denied on a good scoring chance in the 22nd by Real goalie Nick Rimando, Philadelphia handed the hosts the lead.

Union defender Cristian Arrieta made a poor pass to goalkeeper Chris Seitz and Saborio intercepted in the area. Although Philadelphia defender Jordan Harvey was able to poke the ball away from Saborio, Beckerman ran onto the loose ball and fired past Seitz from 17 yards.

Arrieta walked off field at the end of the first half shaking his head, but it just got worse for the Union early in the second half.

Real had a free kick from the left, and Javier Morales drove the ball into the Union's wall - or where it should have been. Torres, who was part of the wall, ducked out of the way and the ball got through to a surprised Seitz.

Seitz fumbled the ball in front of the goal, and Olave scored from just a few yards out in the 51st. The Union have had a player ejected or made a defensive mistake in all six of their matches.

Real, which won the MLS Cup last season, finished the game with a nice goal on a combination play from Saborio and Pablo Campos, who replaced injured Robbie Findley in the first half.

Saborio had the ball on the top of the area and slipped the ball off to Campos on the right. Campos made a poor first touch, but recovered and crossed back to Saborio, who headed into the upper right from six yards in the 70th.

Real hosts the Houston Dynamo on Thursday. Philadelphia plays just its second home match of the season May 15 against FC Dallas.

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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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