Jaqua, De Rosario give Houston chance to defend MLS Cup title

Soccer Betting Lines

11/11/2007 - Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - All season long, one of the Kansas City Wizards' biggest weaknesses was its inability to stop opponents from scoring on corner kicks, giving up seven goals from the corner in the regular season.

All season long, one of Houston's biggest strengths was its ability to score on set plays, with Brian Ching and Nate Jaqua monsters in the air and Brad Davis and Richard Mulrooney excelling on services from the wings.

That strength against weakness match-up would come into play in the Major League Soccer Western Conference final Saturday night at Robertson Stadium as the Dynamo used a Nate Jaqua header on a corner kick to jump to a first-half lead en route to a 2-0 victory.

Dwayne De Rosario would score an insurance goal nine minutes from time with his fourth career playoff goal to propel the defending champs to their second- straight MLS title game against the New England Revolution.

The loss ends the Wizards' playoff run in which they knocked off the Western bracket's top seed, Chivas USA, after sneaking into the playoffs in the last weekend of the regular season as the last seed. The Wizards didn't allow a goal in this year's playoffs until Jaqua's header in the 35th minute Saturday night.

The game started with the Dynamo dominating the visitors, which stretched all the way through the first half.

Houston forced Kansas City goalkeeper Kevin Hartman - the league's all-time playoff leader in games started, minutes played, wins, losses, and saves - to make his first save just five minutes into the match after a Davis corner kick from the left side was put on goal. With the veteran 'keeper coming out to challenge a header, the ball curled back toward the goal, forcing Hartman to reach back and knock the ball away.

The Wizards got their lone shot of the first half about seven minutes later after a free kick from outside the left side of the box. With the free kick curled into the box, Eddie Johnson volleyed a shot from 12-yards out just wide right.

Houston midfielder De Rosario returned the favor a minute later by volleying a shot from 20-yards out wide of an open Wizards' goal.

Houston continued to put pressure on Hartman about five minutes later when Jaqua one-timed a Wade Barrett cross just wide before forward Brian Ching half-volleyed an open shot from the top of the box wide left.

Ching had another chance at the half-hour mark after a cross into the box found his foot after the defense thwarted a diving header attempt by Jaqua. Ching cut back and fired with his left, but it went just wide of the left post and out of bounds.

Hartman dove to his right to knock a hard, low De Rosario shot out of bounds in the 34th, but Jaqua skied to head home the Mulrooney corner kick that ensued to give the defending champs the 1-0 lead.

The Dynamo continued to dominate the Wizards through the first half, out-shooting them 9-1 while forcing Hartman to make three saves before the break.

Carlos Marinelli came in to start the second half in the midfield for Kerry Zavagnin in an effort to gain more possession. It almost paid off in the first minute after the break when a Jack Jewsbury a blast hit the outside of the side netting, doubling the visitors' shot total.

Houston almost doubled the lead two minutes later on another corner kick. Davis took the kick from the left side, but K.C. cleared after a scramble in the six-yard box almost saw Jaqua knock home his second goal of the game.

Davis created a chance in the 69th minute after a second effort to get past defender Nick Garcia on the left side near the byline. He played a cross into the box in the direction of Ching, but Wizards' captain Jimmy Conrad knocked him out of the way before Hartman knocked the ball down and covered with no damage.

Ching left the game after the play after reportedly hearing a pop in his left calf. Joseph Ngwenya came in to replace him with 20 minutes to play.

Defender Craig Waibel played a long diagonal ball from midfield to De Rosario on the left side of the offensive third before the Canadian international took one touch and blasted a left-footed laser just inside the near post, past Hartman for the 2-0 lead with 10 minutes to play.

The Dynamo put it in lockdown the rest of the way, slowing the pace down and shutting the Kansas City attack out without a shot on goal the entire game.

Wwwcbot Soccer Betting News


<< Valiquette helps Rangers earn first road win
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Stephen Valiquette, starting in net for the first time this season, stopped 32 shots in regulation and two in a shootout to help the New York Rangers defeat Toronto, 3-2. Valiquette deflected both Maple

<< It is easy being green: Pierce, Celtics down Nets to go 5-0
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Paul Pierce netted 28 points to keep the Boston Celtics undefeated with a 112-101 victory over the New Jersey Nets at the Izod Center. Ray Allen added 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Celti

<< Nets' Carter sprains right ankle
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New Jersey Nets swingman Vince Carter left Saturday's 112-101 loss to the Boston Celtics in the third quarter with a sprained right ankle. After a slam dunk, Carter came down on his foot a

<< Carmelo leads Nuggets to comeback win in Indy
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carmelo Anthony scored 32 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and the Denver Nuggets erased a 25-point deficit, coming all the way back to down the Indiana Pacers, 113-106. Allen Iverson scored 27 po

<< Prospal has three-point night as Bolts skate past Caps
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vinnie Prospal scored a goal and added two assists as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Washington Capitals, 5-2, at Verizon Center. Martin St. Louis chipped in with a goal and a helper and Vincent

Another dramatic win gives Delaware State MEAC crown >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Just call Delaware State the heart- palpitating Hornets. Once again, the No. 10-ranked Hornets had the 6,682 fans that filled Alumni Stadium to overflowing on the edge of their seats before

Satan's PP goal lifts Isles past Devils >>
Uniondale, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Miroslav Satan's third straight game-winning goal propelled the Islanders past the New Jersey Devils, 2-1, at Nassau Coliseum. Chris Campoli had two assists for the Islanders, who have won four in a

Toronto hammers Bulls by 30 >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Delfino scored 16 points to lead six Toronto players in double figures, as the Raptors crushed the Chicago Bulls 101-71, at the United Center. Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani had 14 apiece, Jamari

'Canes blasted by Virginia in Orange Bowl finale >>
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jameel Sewell completed 20-of-25 passes for 288 yards and one touchdown, also adding 28 yards and one score on eight rushes as 23rd-ranked Virginia steamrolled Miami-Florida, 48-0, in the final game at the histori

McNeal scores 20; Marquette avoids upset to IUPUI >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jerel McNeal scored 20 points to lead 11th- ranked Marquette to a hard-fought victory in its season opener, 76-68, over IUPUI at the Bradley Center. McNeal hit eight of his 11 field goal attempts and a

Online Sportsbook Accepts Credit Cards

Credit Card Sports Betting: Sportsbook accepts U.S. credit cards

Tired of credit card deposit hassles? Then this is the place for you! MySportsbook boasts the best rate of acceptance for credit card deposits in the whole sports betting industry! They give you an instant 10% bonus for doing so as well, where as many other online bookies do not award a bonus for credit card transactioned deposits.

Welcome to MySportsbook.com the biggest and best sportsbook on the web! If you need a sportsbook accepting US credit cards for deposits you've come to the right place because they are the best.

Are you the type that needs lots of wager offerings? Then keep reading! MySportsbook is one of the best at offering everything gambling related that you can think of! Their sportsbook has all the current football and basketball odds as well as auto racing, horse racing, boxing and hard to find sports as well. Their casino boasts tons of different options as well such as blackjack, video poker, slots and virtual games such as hi-lo and virtual horse derby.

Reasons to Play There: A little tip for you all.. This is a sportsbook promotions that has a tremendous volume of players. They also offer an online poker room. Many of these sports bettors hop over to the poker room once the days games are over. Many of these sports bettors are just that and NOT good poker players. In summary, often times you'll be able to get into some lower limit games with some very ripe fish in the late evening hours resulting in some very easy pickin's and nice wins.

Speaking of poker, they offer satellite tournaments where you can win a free seat to the World Series of Poker! Be sure to check out their cycle, no hitter and slaughter rule refunds too! Open an account today by clicking here!

What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

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.

How to Read Point Spreads

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:

To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.