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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Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?

I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.

There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.

Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.

For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.

A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.

The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.

Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.

So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.

Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.

“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.

Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.

“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.

It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.

Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.

The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.

“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.

“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”

Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.

The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.

“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”

Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?

“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.