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07/17/2010 - Bastad, Sweden (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Swedish stalwart Robin Soderling and Nicolas Almagro will square off in the Swedish Open final after each won their respective semifinal matches on Saturday.
Soderling lost the first set for the second consecutive day before rallying for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over third-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer, who was 31-6 on clay this year coming into the match.
Soderling, the reigning Bastad titlist and two-time French Open runner-up, has gone the distance in each of his three matches in this tournament.
He will be looking for his sixth career ATP crown on Sunday in a battle against Almagro, who cruised past Spanish countrymate Tommy Robredo, 6-1, 6-3 on the red clay at Bastad Tennis Stadium in just over 68 minutes.
Robredo, seeded fifth, had won here in 2006 and 2008, but was no match for Almagro, who has yet to win on the tour this year, but has done so five times previously in his career.
Soderling is 3-2 all-time against Almagro, though the latter won in straight sets in Madrid earlier this year.
<< Braves aim to bounce back against Brewers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Braves can't afford to lose any ground in the
competitive National League East Division. Tonight they have a good shot at
bouncing back with Tim Hudson on the mound in the third test of a four-game
series
<< Cards send Wainwright to hill vs. Dodgers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Adam Wainwright will try to become just the second 14-game
winner in the major leagues and remain perfect at home when he leads the St.
Louis Cardinals into the third test of a four-game series tonight versus the
Los Ang
<< Richard, Padres resume series vs. D'Backs
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Clayton Richard was bailed out by his offense the last time
he took the mound. The San Diego Padres hope that Richard won't need the help
when he gets the nod tonight in the second installment of a three-game series
versus
<< Mets try to rebound against homestanding Giants
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Mets are hoping something will give when they
take on the San Francisco Giants Saturday night in the third installment of a
four-game set at AT&T Park.
New York has lost the first two games of this set
Astros vie to continue mastery of Buccos >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Astros can continue a season's worth of success
against the Pittsburgh Pirates tonight, when the teams get together for the
middle game of a three-game series at PNC Park.
Houston made it seven in a row aga
Marlins ace Johnson squares off with Nats >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Josh Johnson can match a Washington pitching gem with one
of his own tonight, when the Florida Marlins ace takes on the Nationals in the
second test of a three-game series between NL East Division foes at Sun Life
Stadium
Angels, Mariners continue set at Big A >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have owned the Seattle
Mariners this season and they will try to continue that dominance tonight as
the squads resume a four-game set at Angel Stadium.
Following last night's 3-2 res
Twins hope to make up more ground vs. White Sox >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Twins will try to make up some more ground on
the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox, as the teams continue a four-game
set tonight at Target Field.
Last night, Joe Mauer had two hits, including a bi
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.
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
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