Union need result at home against FC Dallas

Soccer Betting Lines

05/14/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Philadelphia Union coach Peter Nowak said following the expansion club's fourth consecutive defeat last weekend the team is making mistakes "that should not happen."

Philadelphia has made mistakes in every match this season, but Saturday's game against FC Dallas gives the Union a chance to turn their season around at the only place, Lincoln Financial Field, where those errors were overshadowed.

The Union, who move into PPL Park in Chester, Pa. in June, won their only home match at the Linc, 3-2 over D.C. United on April 10.

Philadelphia made mistakes in that match as well, the most obvious an error by goalie Chris Seitz that led to a goal for United, but pulled out its only win. Sebastien Le Toux scored all three goals.

Outside of Philadelphia, the Union have been unable to overcome those errors.

Just last week in a 3-0 loss to Real Salt Lake, defender Cristian Arrieta made a poor back pass to Seitz that led to Real's first goal and Roger Torres moved out of the way of a free kick that Seitz then mishandled to lead to the second goal.

"We made individual mistakes and that should not happen," Nowak said.

In addition to the errors, Philadelphia has scored the first goal in just one of its matches. Not surprisingly, it was the Union's lone win over United.

"The problem that we have been having so far with being away is that we have been making mistakes and haven't been able to score," Fred said on the club's website.

The Union have just three goals on the road and have allowed 11 but could very easily make an impact this year if it gets results at home. Philadelphia is on the road for eight of its first 10 matches, but spends most of the second half at home.

"It's important for any team to have a good record at home. Certainly the way we've started the season, we've put a little bit of pressure on ourselves to try and get those results at home," Union forward Alejandro Moreno said on the club's website.

Le Toux, who has missed the last two games through injury, should return this week. He has four of the team's six goals, and the Union need him up top along with Moreno against Dallas.

Dallas started the year without a win in its first five games - although four of those were draws - but has won its last two matches.

Kevin Hartman took over the starting goalkeeper spot from Dario Sala last week and posted two shutouts. Dallas beat the Houston Dynamo 1-0 on Wednesday, then beat D.C. United 1-0 on Saturday. Hartman joined Dallas from Kansas City prior to the season.

"Personally, it's been great to get out there and have an opportunity to kind of prove myself. My biggest thing is just making sure that I'm providing a backbone for the guys in front of me that they're confident in," Hartman said on the club's website.

"That's something as a guy who has been here for a month or whatever doesn't really come naturally. You have to prove it."

Although Dallas has scored in every match this season, it has just nine goals. Coach Schellas Hyndman added Colombian striker Milton Rodriguez on Thursday, but he won't join the team until mid-July.

Jeff Cunningham leads the club with four goals and, after the first three came from the penalty spot, scored in the run of play against D.C.

Overall, Hartman is pleased with the team's recent success and hopes FC Dallas continues to find ways to earn three points.

"Obviously, coming off two 1-0 victories, it feels good for everyone. It shows that we're able to defend over 90 minutes and really manage a game," Hartman said. "Games earlier in the season that we really weren't getting three points from, we now find a way to do it.

"So, that's something for everybody that's great."

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A two-time Pro Bowler, Green was going into a feet-first hook slide when he was knocked unconscious by a thunderous, head-snapping hit from Cincinnati's Robert Geathers.

Oddsmakers at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com currently have the Chiefs listed as 7-point favorites versus the 49ers.

The 49ers got beat by Philadelphia 38-24 as a 6.5-point underdog last week. The combined score went OVER the posted over/under total (42.5).

Alex Smith completed 27-of-46 passes for 293 yards with a touchdown. Michael Robinson rushed for 29 yards and a pair of touchdowns on five carries.

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To visit this online sports book got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.

Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

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