Unbeatens Bayern Munich, Schalke clash

Soccer Betting Lines

09/15/2007 - Munich, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bayern Munich will put its unbeaten mark on the line on Saturday against Schalke 04, the only other club in the Bundesliga that hasn't lost this season.

Although the league contenders haven't lost yet, the sides haven't gotten off to equal starts. Bayern Munich has accumulated 10 points in four matches and Schalke has just six.

With new signings Luca Toni, Miroslav Klose and Frank Ribery leading the way, Bayern Munich has three wins and a draw and has outscored its opponents 11-1. Toni and Klose each have three goals.

Klose will have to do something he hasn't done in six years to get his fourth goal, and that's score against Schalke. He last scored against Schalke while playing for Kaiserslautern in April of 2001.

If that trend continues, Bayern Munich may also have to look for someone other than Toni to find the back of the net.

Toni is nursing a thigh injury and his status for the game is in doubt. He did rejoin Bayern Munich on Monday and has been rehabbing the injury all week.

"Toni's injury was no secret," Bayern Munich manager Ottmar Hitzfeld said. "We have done everything in our capacity to get him fit."

Bayern still has plenty of firepower, though, and is unbeaten at home. Bayern Munich has yet to allow a goal in its two home matches.

Schalke's Kevin Kuranyi, who has taken a league-high 26 shots and leads the club with two goals, will try to change that Saturday.

Regardless of the score, neither team can let down until the final whistle. Both clubs have had a lot of success offensively late in games so far this season. Bayern Munich leads the league with four goals in the last quarter of its games and Schalke is second with three.

However, the teams have combined to allow just one goal in the last quarter of their games this season.

Schalke finished second in the league last year and could use a victory. With just one wins and three draws, the club has scored eight goals but also given up five.

On Friday, Borussia Dortmund got by Werder Bremen, 3-0, to open the Bundesliga week.

Also on Saturday, Stuttgart hosts Energie, Bayer Leverkusen hosts Bochum, Nurnberg hosts Hannover, Arminia Bielefeld hosts Rostock and Eintracht hosts Hamburg.

On Sunday, Duisburg hosts Hertha Berlin and Wolfsburg hosts Karlsruher.

Wsouthwest Soccer Betting News

<< Manning, Umenyiora practice
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Giants got a boost on Friday, as both quarterback Eli Manning and defensive end Osi Umenyiora practiced in preparation for Sunday's game against Green Bay. Head coach Tom Coug

<< Farfan could make season debut vs. Vitesse
Eindhoven, Holland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Three-time defending Eredivisie champions PSV Eindhoven could get a extra boost of energy on Saturday when it plays Vitesse at Philips Stadium. Jefferson Farfan, who has missed all season due

<< United acquires Monteiro from Fire
Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - D.C. United announced Friday the club has acquired Jerson Monteiro from the Chicago Fire in exchange for a conditional 2008 MLS SuperDraft pick. Uniteds roster included an open developmental spot for the

<< Hosts China, Brazil look to lock up berth in quarters
Wuhan, China (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - China opened its World Cup with a dramatic win over Denmark and would all but lock up a spot in the quarterfinals with a win or a tie against Brazil on Saturday. China built a two-goal lead against Denmark i

<< Norway, Australia to battle for Group C lead
Hangzhou, China (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top spot in Group C will be on the line on Saturday when Australia meets Norway in the second game for both teams. Norway earned a tough 2-1 comeback win against Canada, while Austral

Phils' Alfonseca suspended four games >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Philadelphia Phillies relief pitcher Antonio Alfonseca was suspended for four games and fined an undisclosed amount for intentionally throwing at Colorado's Todd Helton on Thursday. With two outs i

Bowyer edges Truex Jr. for pole in first Chase race >>
Loudon, NH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Clint Bowyer won the pole for the opening round of the 10-race "Chase for the Nextel Cup" at the New Hampshire International Speedway. The No.07 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet driver will start out front

Feeley has second surgery for broken hand >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Philadelphia Eagles backup quarterback A.J. Feeley underwent a second surgery Friday to repair a broken bone in his left hand. Feeley had the first surgery on August 31 after breaking the third meta

AEG-owned clubs to clash in Carson >>
Carson, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Houston and Los Angeles, which are owned by the same company, AEG, are two teams on the opposite side of the spectrum. The Dynamo are second in the Western table and are built around a gritty defensive ba

Chivas can clinch playoff spot with win in Colorado and help >>
Commerce City, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - "Chivas is a very good team with a great atmosphere and my goal is to get all the way to playoffs and we're proving right now that we're the best team in Major League Soccer," CD Chivas USA reserve

SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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