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06/24/2010 - Bloemfontein, South Africa (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Switzerland defender Steve Von Bergen admitted the team was "angry" after a loss to Chile on Monday, when a red card to Valon Behrami proved too much for the Swiss to overcome.
Switzerland held off Chile until the 75th minute, when Mark Gonzalez snapped the European side's World Cup record streak of 558 minutes without allowing a goal.
The Swiss slumped to a 1-0 loss, but remain in contention for a knockout round berth entering its final Group H game Friday against Honduras. Switzerland got three points in its opener, a 1-0 upset of tournament favorite Spain.
Although Honduras also retains some hope of advancing, Ottmar Hitzfeld's Swiss side has a much more realistic chance. Chile plays Spain in the other match in Group H on Friday.
Switzerland is level on points with Spain, which beat Honduras 2-0 in its next match, and with a win or tie and the right result between Spain and Chile will advance.
"We were completely thrown by the red card. We're angry at the moment," said Von Bergen following the Chile loss, "but we're still in with a great chance."
Switzerland's shutout streak dated back to the 1994 knockout stage, when Txiki Begiristain scored the last goal in Spain's 3-0 win. The Swiss were eliminated four years ago without allowing a goal when they lost to Ukraine in penalties.
Hitzfeld was already without central defender Philippe Senderos due to injury, and now has to field a team with suspended midfielder Behrami.
Striker Alexander Frei did provide a boost against Chile, as the captain made his first appearance of this World Cup despite an ankle injury.
Hitzfeld remains optimistic entering the finale against the Central Americans, as long as his side isn't impacted too much by the loss to Chile.
"I'm upbeat about our meeting with Honduras," Hitzfeld said. "We'll put this defeat behind us and recover as quickly as we can."
Honduras heads to Free State Stadium with a slim chance to advance, but needs a win over Switzerland and for Chile to beat Spain, in addition to overturning a sizable deficit in goal differential.
"If Chile win then we've got a chance. We're going to keep working right until the end to try and make it through," Honduras defender Osman Chavez said.
The Hondurans have failed to score in their first two matches, the first being a 1-0 loss to Chile, and were lucky to avoid a more lopsided loss to Spain.
However, "all is not lost yet," Honduras forward David Suazo said.
Honduras manager Reinaldo Rueda expects a difficult match against Switzerland, but even if his side fails to advance, would like to end the tournament with a positive effort.
"We'll now have to see if the players can bounce back mentally and go out and give their all to end on a high for the good of Honduran football," Rueda said.
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SEATTLE (AP) -Left-hander Erik Bedard could make his season debut as early as July 6 if he is able to get through the next week without any injury setbacks.Seattle manager Don Wakamatsu said Thursday that Bedard will throw for the Mariners' team in
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Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Kings have announced two-
year contract extensions for a large contingent of its front office personnel,
including president and general manager Dean Lombardi and head coach Terry
Murray.
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Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Thrashers are expected to name
Craig Ramsay their next head coach at a 4 p.m. press conference Thursday.
Ramsay was an assistant coach for Boston the last three seasons and previously
served a
<< Bruins extend D Boychuk
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Bruins have signed defenseman
Johnny Boychuk to a two-year contract extension.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Boychuk recorded five goals and 10 assists in 51 games this past season
Serena, Sharapova win second-rounders at Wimbledon >>
Wimbledon, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning champion Serena Williams and
former champ Maria Sharapova were straight-set second-round victors Thursday,
on a day when Queen Elizabeth II visited Wimbledon for the first time in 33
years.
T
Shoppach and Garza send Rays past Padres >>
St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kelly Shoppach went 3-for-4 with a solo
home run to lead the Tampa Bay Rays to a 5-3 win over the San Diego Padres in
the finale of a three-game interleague set.
B.J. Upton and Carlos Pena each had a
Dutch take Group E with win over Cameroon >>
Cape Town, South Africa (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored in the
83rd minute, and the Netherlands defeated Cameroon 2-1 on Thursday at Green
Point Stadium to clinch first place in Group E at the FIFA World Cup.
Robin Van Per
Japan defeats Denmark to reach knockout stage >>
Rustenburg, South Africa (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Japan booked its ticket to the
FIFA World Cup knockout round with a 3-1 win over Denmark at Royal Bafokeng
Stadium on Thursday.
Keisuke Honda and Yasuhito Endo scored first-half free-kick
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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