Dynamo win 3rd straight as Crew remain winless in six

Soccer Betting Lines

06/11/2007 - Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A little over a week ago, Major League Soccer's defending cup holder, Houston, looked like it was heading for a rough stretch. The Dynamo were preparing for a three-games-in-eight-days stretch after starting the season 2-5-1. To make matters worse, the team would be without its top three scorers - Dwayne De Rosario, Brian Ching and Ricardo Clarke - for the final two of those games because of international call-ups. Things didn't look good for the champs.

What a difference a week makes.

Sunday, the Dynamo concluded their tough stretch by winning at the Columbus Crew, 2-1, to earn their third straight win. Now Houston (5-5-1) sits in second place in the Western Conference, three points behind FC Dallas with a game in hand.

Sunday's game started favorably for the visitors. After sitting back and defending in the early moments of the game, content to clog up the Columbus offensive third, the Dynamo were able to strike first.

Joseph Ngwenya notched his third goal of the season - his third-consecutive game with a goal - in the 22nd minute on a corner kick. Houston midfielder Brad Davis bent a left-footed corner kick towards the box which Ngwenya deflected off the far post with a perfectly timed header to make the score 1-0.

The lead was short-lived, however, as the Crew's Alejandro Moreno knotted the score at one less than three minutes later. Guillermo Barros Schelotto deked past a defender before bending a cross into the box to a wide open Moreno, who made no mistake, heading past Pat Onstad for his first goal of the season.

In a span of three minutes, Ngwenya and Moreno, who were traded for each other on May 9, made their former teams pay for sending them out of town.

The Crew (1-4-5) showed what kind of bounces they have been getting to lead to a six-game winless streak about five minutes later when Houston midfielder Kelly Gray fired a low cross into the box on the rush. On the play, Chad Marshall, a normally reliable defender, stuck out his foot and deflected the Gray cross into his own net to make the score 2-1 Houston. The own goal turned out to be the difference in the game for the hard-luck Crew.

Columbus will try to bounce back and get into the win column when it plays at New England Saturday while Houston gets a break, with its next fixture scheduled for June 21 at CD Chivas USA.

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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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