Red Bulls hope to end RSL's home streak
Soccer Betting Lines
09/03/2010 - Sandy, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Red Bull New York travels to take on Real Salt Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday night in Major League Soccer action.
Both teams are in second place in their respective conference tables, with RSL holding a three point advantage in the overall league standings over the Red Bulls.
New York (11-7-4) has the deck stacked against it a bit heading into Rio Tinto Stadium, where RSL hasn't lost since May of 2009, a stretch of 21 games.
On top of that, the Red Bulls will be without a number of key players because of international duty. The list includes starting goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul, left back Roy Miller, right winger Dane Richards and central midfielder Rafa Marquez.
"It's a FIFA day, I have no problem [with them leaving]," New York coach Hans Backe told mlssoccer.com. "I'm just concerned we're still playing on a FIFA day."
Two players who should still be in the lineup for New York are designated players Juan Pablo Angel and Thierry Henry, who just retired from the French national team.
"First time I ever find myself in the situation where a lot of our players are away and we still have to play," Henry told mlssoccer.com.
Red Bull midfielder Joel Lindpere will also be available after he declined an invitation to join the Estonian national team.
"It's not something we talk about, who is here and who isn't," New York defender Danleigh Borman told mlssoccer.com. "We know our roles, we have depth here on this team and, like Toronto a few weeks ago when we were missing players, we know we have guys who can step in right away and get things done."
RSL (11-4-7) will also be playing without influential attackers Alvaro Saborio and Will Johnson. The only injury the defending MLS Cup champs are dealing with is to Jamison Olave, who is expected to play with a knee sprain.
New York will be without midfielders Giorgi Chirgadze, Luke Sassano and Brian Nielsen, and defender Jeremy Hall because of injuries.
When Fresno State visited Cincinnati last season, the Bulldogs outgained the Bearcats, controlled the ball for nearly 44 minutes and still ended up on the losing side of a 28-20 game that still rankles coach Pat Hill.While Fresno State controlled th
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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
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