07/03/2007 - Barinas, Venezuela (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The United States Men's National Team (MNT) took a mainly inexperienced roster to Venezuela for the Copa America tournament and it showed at Estadio Agustin Tovar against Group C opponent Paraguay Monday evening.
The Americans' inability to finish proved deadly as Paraguay escaped with a 3-1 win - its second victory in two Copa matches - after the U.S. missed on numerous clear-cut opportunities in the Paraguayan penalty area.
The teams traded first half goals with Paraguay getting on the board first with an Edgar Barreto goal in the 31st minute before Ricardo Clark equalized just before the break.
After the break, Oscar Cardozo slotted home the game-winner in the 58th minute before Salvador Cabanas put a free kick from the top of the box past U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller two minutes into stoppage time.
With the win, Paraguay sits atop Group C, ahead of the Argentina and Colombia fixture, after topping Colombia 5-0 in its first group match. The U.S. sits at the bottom of the group at 0-2 after losing to Argentina 4-1 in its first match of the tourney.
The game started fast for the Americans, who almost got the opener just 10 minutes in. A Benny Feilhaber cross into the box found the head of a wide-open Sacha Kljestan, but he missed badly from four-yards out.
Paraguay got its first shot a couple minutes later when Feilhaber had the ball stripped away by Barreto in the U.S. area, but Keller made one of his eight saves to keep the game scoreless.
Paraguay got the game's first tally about 15 minutes later on the counter attack. After driving into the MNT area, Roque Santa Cruz slipped a pass between two U.S. defenders to an onrushing Barreto, who slide a shot past Keller for the 1-0 lead.
The Americans had a chance to equalize a couple minutes later when striker Eddie Johnson drove into the box and laid a pass off to Jonathan Bornstein, making a run from his left fullback position. Bornstein's effort was weak as starting goalkeeper Justo Villar easily made the save.
The U.S. was able to finally get the equalizer about 10 minutes later when defender Drew Moor sent a long ball into the Paraguay box that was taken by striker Taylor Twellman. Twellman one-touched the ball to the right side to midfielder Clark, who took a touch to his right and blasted a shot inside the far post to make it 1-1.
The U.S. came out strong after the break, looking to take its first lead of the game with two shots in the first 30 seconds. The first opportunity was the most dangerous as Johnson broke into the box and laid off a ball to Twellman, but Twellman did little with the chance, getting a weak shot on goal that was deflected away by the defense. The other chance was easily saved as well.
Villar came out of the game with an apparent muscle pull in the 55th minute to give the U.S. hope, but that was short-lived as the South American side went up a goal three minutes later.
On another miscue by the American backline, Cardozo scored on a perfectly placed left-footed strike into the far post netting when he came in alone on Keller. U.S. central defender Jimmy Conrad gave up the chance by letting a ball go through, leaving Keller at the mercy of the shooter.
Keller came up big in the 67th minute when he made a diving stop on a Santa Cruz shot after a Paraguay buildup climaxed on the right side of the U.S. penalty area to keep the MNT in the game. The U.S. had a chance to make the save count a couple minutes later, but a Moore to Johnson to Twellman chance in the box resulted in another weak effort, easily saved by backup goalkeeper Aldo Bobadilla.
Second half substitute Justin Mapp squandered another U.S. chance when he had a two-on-one breakaway with Johnson, but instead of passing to the open Johnson in the area, he fired a shot high, just over the crossbar in the 75th minute.
Clark had a chance for his second goal of the game when he blasted a hard shot toward the far post after another feed by Johnson in the final 10 minutes, but Bobadilla did well to make the diving save and keep his team on top.
Another missed opportunity, possibly the biggest of the game since Kljestan's missed header in the first 10 minutes, happened in the closing minutes. Clark took control of the ball on the left side, just outside the area before lofting a perfect cross to a wide-open Moor from 8-yards out. But his weak header went right at Bobadilla, who made at least five saves in his 35 minutes of action.
The MNT had two or three marginal chances in the closing seconds before Cabanas curled a free kick from the top of the box past Keller to close out the scoring.
The U.S. will look for its first win of the tourney on Thursday when it takes on Colombia, while Paraguay closes out is group play against Argentina the same day.
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Dustin Pedroi
The most popular sports to bet on are NFL and college football along with NBA and NCAA basketball. There are multiple betting opportunities within those sports, beginning with the basic wager on a game’s outcome (also called betting the side). College Football Point spreads are used in both football and basketball in an attempt to even the attractiveness of each team in a match-up. ( See our article detailing how and why point spreads are made)
But you could also simply bet on the money line, or straight-up winner of the game. Oddsmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on the underdog to balance the action on both sides. While money line gambling is an attractive option for football and basketball bettors who only care about picking a winner, it is the primary option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball and individual sports like boxing, tennis, golf and racing events such as NASCAR. ( More details on playing the Money Line)
Another bet across all major team sports including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game, called an Over/Under total. For example, the Over/Under total on Super Bowl XXXIX was 48, which means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined in the game.
The final score of Super Bowl XXXIX was 24-21; the scoring of both teams added up to 45, which means the game went Under . So Under bettors won, and Over bettors lost.
Sports gambling doesn’t end there. Betting sides and totals are the most common wagers available everywhere, but many sportsbooks also offer future bets on big upcoming events like who will win next year’s Super Bowl and what movie will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
The main advantage of futures is that you can get appealing odds by betting far in advance. For example, with NFL futures you often can get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even starts. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl odds might be 20/1 in the preseason; but by midseason, their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be legitimate championship contenders.
Involves one individual wager, whether it be on your team to cover the point spread, to win the game straight-up on the money line, or to go over/under the total.
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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. “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).
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.
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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