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08/27/2010 - Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Real Madrid had an incredible season last year, but still finished three points behind Barcelona in Spain's La Liga.
The nine-time Champions League winner spent nearly $400 million last offseason, but not even the additions of former FIFA World Players of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka was enough to unseat Barca.
Real made more moves this offseason to end Barca's two-year title run, but it was the addition of manager Jose Mourinho that was the most important.
Mourinho won the Champions League, Italian Serie A and Coppa Italia last year with Inter Milan, but was lured to the Bernabeu this offseason.
"The Special One" also captured the Champions League with Portugal's FC Porto earlier in his career, and now faces the task of ending Real's La Liga and CL droughts.
Real last won the Champions League in 2002 and has been eliminated in the last 16 each of the last six seasons. The club last won La Liga in 2008, a drought that is only unacceptable in Madrid.
"Winning is the only thing that counts at Real Madrid," Madrid midfielder Xabi Alonso said.
Mourinho allowed veterans Raul, Guti and Christoph Metzelder to leave Madrid, turning to youth with the signings of Angel di Maria, Pedro Leon, Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira and Sergio Canales.
Those four players cost Real around $85 million, and Argentina's di Maria is a talented 22-year-old who cost nearly half of that amount from Benfica. Khedira and Ozil, who cost a combined $34 million, both emerged for Germany during the recent FIFA World Cup. Leon and Canales are a pair of Spanish U-21 players who are the future of Spain's senior team.
Veteran Ricardo Carvalho, who played under Mourinho at Porto and Chelsea, was also brought in from Chelsea to solidify the defense.
Alonso, who was signed from Liverpool last season, believes Madrid will have a strong team this season, but it could take some time to completely get used to Mourinho.
"The team is still evolving. The internationals rejoined the squad throughout the preseason following the World Cup. The coach needs time for the players to act out his new ideas on the pitch. We have to continue working, but we will improve with time," Alonso said.
Barcelona had more notable departures this summer as Thierry Henry, Yaya Toure and Dmytro Chygrynskiy all left, but Pep Guardiola does have one new toy this season in Spain striker David Villa.
Villa joined Barca from Valencia for more than $50 million, adding another one of the pieces of Spain's World Cup squad to the already impressive club. Barca is also close to signing Argentina defensive midfielder Javier Mascherano, who would strengthen the best club midfield in the world.
Barca held off Real last season by three points, although it suffered just one loss in La Liga. With both teams again the class of La Liga, all that really is yet to be decided is which finishes first and which finishes second.
On Saturday, Hercules hosts Athletic Bilbao, Malaga hosts Valencia and Levante hosts Sevilla as the La Liga season kicks off.
Barca visits Racing and Real Madrid visits Mallorca on Sunday, when Deportivo hosts Real Zaragoza, Espanyol hosts Getafe, Real Sociedad hosts Villarreal and Osasuna hosts Almeria.
Atletico Madrid, which beat Inter Milan in the UEFA Super Cup on Friday, opens against Sporting Gijon on Monday.
<< United, Chivas square off at The HDC
Carson, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - D.C. United and Chivas USA square off in a
battle of Major League Soccer bottom-feeders on Sunday night at The Home Depot
Center.
Both teams sit at the bottom of their respective conference tables w
<< Baltimore P Johnson reinstated from 60-day DL
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Orioles reinstated pitcher Jim
Johnson from the 60-day disabled list on Friday.
Johnson has been on the 60-day DL since May 28, and hasn't pitched since April
30 against Boston due to right
<< Bodine tops in truck qualifying at Chicagoland
Joliet, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Todd Bodine will start on the pole for Friday's
EnjoyIllinois.com 225 Camping World Truck Series race after posting the
fastest lap in qualifying at Chicagoland Speedway.
Bodine, the last driver to make
<< Stakhovsky, Istomin land in New Haven finale
New Haven, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ninth-seeded Sergiy Stakhovsky was an easy
semifinal winner while 15th-seeded Denis Istomin battled to a three-set win
Friday to reach the final at the $750,000 Pilot Pen Tennis event, a final
hardcou
Day leads Barclays; Woods struggles >>
Paramus, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Australia's Jason Day posted his second
consecutive four-under 67 on Friday to take the second-round lead at The
Barclays.
Day, who earned his first PGA Tour win earlier this season at the Byron N
SMU signs Jones to extension >>
Dallas, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - SMU head football coach June Jones has
signed a two-year contract extension that will keep him with the school
through the 2014 season.
The Mustangs finished 8-5 under Jones last year and e
Rockies shuffle roster with four moves >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rockies re-tooled their roster
Friday, making four separate moves that included disabling right-hander Manuel
Corpas and calling up lefty Franklin Morales from Triple-A Colorado Springs.
Infiel
Kane Hanson moves in front at Canadian Tour Championship >>
St. Catharines, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - American Kane Hanson posted a six-under
64 on Friday to move in front at the halfway point of the Canadian Tour
Championship.
Hanson finished 36 holes at St. Catharines Golf & Country Club at
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
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.
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.
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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