11/25/2008 - Borisov, Belarus (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Raul added to his record Champions League goal total, scoring in the seventh minute of a key 1-0 win over BATE Borisov on Tuesday that snapped a rare-two game skid for the Spanish champions and secured a spot in the knockout stage.
Raul's goal was his 62nd all-time in the Champions League - his first this year - and helped Real Madrid bounce back from consecutive losses to Juventus. Real hadn't lost consecutive games in the group stage in a decade.
Real, which is 3-2 and second in Group H after five matches, still has a chance to win the group on the final matchday. Juventus tied Zenit St. Petersburg 0-0, and holds a two-point edge.
Madrid and Juventus are both through to the knockout stage, and were joined in the next round by Arsenal, Bayern Munich, FC Porto, Lyon, Manchester United and Villarreal on Tuesday.
Raul put Real in control early at tiny 5,500-seat Horodskiy Stadium, scoring in the opening minutes to erase BATE's homefield advantage.
Royston Drenthe set up the goal with a cross from the left that sneaked through a host of players and found Raul on the far post. Raul twisted to take a quick shot with his left foot, catching the ball just after a small hop, and hammered it off the underside of the crossbar and into the goal.
Real goalie Iker Casillas had no trouble making the lead hold, facing just one shot on goal.
Madrid hosts Zenit St. Petersburg on Dec. 10 in the final round of group play, and needs a win to have any shot of finishing first in Group H. Juventus hosts BATE. Zenit has third place and a spot in the UEFA Cup secured.
Juventus failed to build on its wins over Real in Zenit on a sad day in Russia. Three fans, including a child, were killed by a grenade close to the training facility.
The match went on as planned, and Juventus' Olof Mellberg and Vincenzo Iaquinta hit the left post in the first half to just miss putting the Italian side up. Zenit's Pavel Pogrebniak hit the same post in the second half.
In Group E, Manchester United and Villarreal played to another 0-0 draw to stay level on points and AaB defeated Celtic 2-1.
In Villarreal, Spain, Cristiano Ronaldo had the best scoring chance of the game in the 41st minute but his drive from outside the penalty area was directed off the crossbar by a diving Villarreal goalie Diego Lopez.
Joan Capdevila, who was later sent off for a foul on Ronaldo, saved Villarreal midway through the second half when he headed an errant deflection off his own goal line.
Man United, which is unbeaten in 18 straight Champions League games, holds the tiebreaker entering the final matchday. United hosts AaB, which got a goal from Lucas de Deus Santos in the 72nd and an own goal in 87th to edge Celtic 2-1 in Denmark and secure third and a spot in the UEFA Cup. Villarreal visits Celtic.
In Group F, Miroslav Klose had two goals and an assist to lead Bayern Munich to a 3-0 win over Steaua Bucharest and Lyon held off Fiorentina 2-1 to stay level in points.
In Munich, Klose broke open a scoreless match in the 57th minute, assisted on Luca Toni's goal four minutes later and sealed the match on another assist from Franck Ribery in the 71st.
In Florence, Jean Makoun and Karim Benzema scored in the first 27 minutes and Lyon held on despite a Alberto Gilardino goal in the 45th.
Lyon and Bayern are level atop the group, but Lyon sits first based on goals on the road. Bayern visits Lyon on the final day of the stage to determine the top team in the group.
In Group G, Nicklas Bendtner scored in the 86th minute as Arsenal escaped with a 1-1 draw against Dynamo Kyiv and Lisandro Lopez scored twice to lead FC Porto to a 2-1 win over Fenerbahce.
In London, Arsenal finally shook off back-to-back English Premier League losses - 2-0 to Aston Villa and 3-0 to Manchester City - in the closing minutes on the goal by Bendtner.
New captain Cesc Fabregas set up the goal and the Danish striker finished into the bottom right corner four minutes from time.
In Istanbul, Turkey, Lopez scored in the 18th and 28th minutes and FC Porto won to remain in contention for first in the group. Porto hosts Arsenal on the last day of the stage and needs a win to pass the English club.
Groups A-D play Wednesday, with Chelsea visiting Bordeaux and Roma visiting CFR Cluj in a wide open Group A and Panathinaikos visiting Inter Milan and Werder Bremen visiting Anorthosis in wide open Group B highlighting the matches.
<< Jags make slew of roster moves
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Podlesh appeared in all 11 games this season for Jacksonville
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Ashburn, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Redskins waived running
back and former MVP Shaun Alexander on Tuesday, just more than a month after
they brought him to the team.
Alexander, 31, was added by Washington in mid-Octob
<< NCAA levies punishment on Sampson, puts Indiana on probation
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Indiana University men's
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the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions on Tuesday, stemming from
recruit
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Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The planned 2011 target date for the new Florida
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Bayern Munich vows to keep Schweinsteiger >>
Munich, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has vowed to
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The Germany international is out of contract at the Allianz Arena at the end of
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Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The great W. Axl Rose once sang about
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N' Roses' first new album in 14 years to be released into the wild, I'm going
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Rangers trio likely to play this weekend >>
Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rangers manager Walter Smith is hoping for
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The Gers boss believes his squad could be bolstered by Sasa Papac, Kris Boyd
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Eagles RB Westbrook, CB Samuel miss practice >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Philadelphia running back Brian
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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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