Columbus rallies to tie New England

Soccer Betting Lines

06/17/2007 - Foxborough, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Alejandro Moreno scored on a diving header in the 85th minute as Columbus rallied from a two-goal deficit for a 3-3 draw with New England on Saturday.

Moreno's spectacular effort was off a cross from Guillermo Barros Schelotto, who scored late in the opening half with an assist from Moreno to start the Crew's comeback.

Columbus actually opened the scoring early in the first half with a goal from Robbie Rogers, who also assisted on Moreno's goal, before New England scored three unanswered goals.

Adam Cristman had two goals for New England and Pat Noonan had one - all in a 20-minute stretch of the first half - proving the Revs still have plenty of offense with Taylor Twellman and Steve Ralston away with the U.S. National Team.

But it was Columbus' night, as the last-place team in the Eastern Conference ended a two-game losing streak by scoring three goals in a game for the first time this season.

"It could be the turning point for us," Moreno said.

Columbus' Robbie Rogers opened the scoring with his first goal of the season in the ninth minute. Ned Grabavoy set up Rogers with a pass down the middle of the field and he dribbled into the box before beating Revs goalie Matt Reis with a well-placed left-footed shot.

New England needed just four minutes to erase the deficit when a Crew mistake led to a breakaway by Cristman. Columbus took a quick free kick, but the ball hit a Revs player standing just a few feet away and deflected to Cristman. Wide open on the right side, Cristman dribbled into the box and had his shot deflect off Columbus defender Chad Marshall and over goalie Will Hesmer.

Four minutes later, the Revs took the lead when Noonan scored his first goal of the season. Noonan was freed on a breakaway down the left side on a great pass from Andy Dorman and scored inside the left post.

Then in the 32nd minute, Cristman scored his second of the game - and third of the season - with assists from Noonan and Dorman. Noonan made the play work by drawing two defenders to him in the left corner of the box before turning and passing to Cristman, who one-timed the ball into the top right of the goal.

Columbus got one goal back in first-half stoppage time when Schelotto, a prize international signee, scored his first MLS goal. Moreno passed to Grabavoy to start the play and Grabavoy's pass to Schelotto was slotted inside the near post by the former Boca Juniors star.

After the offensive fireworks in the first, the game turned into a defensive struggle in the second half. Neither team had any good scoring chances until the 85th minute.

The Crew didn't waste the chance as Moreno dove all-out to head the ball deep in the box and place it perfectly into the left corner of the goal, out of the reach of a diving Reis.

It was the second time this season Columbus has tied New England, which is third in the East and has been at or near the top of the standings all season. The teams played to a 2-2 draw in their only other meeting this year.

New England has posted consecutive ties against the last-place teams in each conference. The Revolution tied winless Real Salt Lake, 0-0, in their previous game.

Columbus (1-4-7) pulled into a tie for sixth in the East with Toronto, which plays FC Dallas on Sunday. New England (5-2-5) hasn't won in its last three games and now has just a one-point edge on surging D.C. United, which beat Chicago, 3-1, on Saturday.

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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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