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Arsenal, Barca dealing with absences ahead of return legSoccer Betting Lines04/05/2010 - Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There will be a number of changes made to the lineups of both Arsenal and Barcelona when the two sides take the field at the Nou Camp for the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday. Injuries and suspensions will rob both sides of key players, with Arsenal missing Cesc Fabregas, Andrei Arshavin, William Gallas and now Alex Song, while the defending champions will have to do without the services of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and center backs Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol along with Andres Iniesta. Barcelona appeared to be on its way to a comfortable win in the first leg with a pair of goals from Ibrahimovic in the second half, but the Gunners put together a strong rally that saw them equalize five minutes from time with a Fabregas penalty kick that evened the match at 2-2. Arsenal would seem to have momentum on its side, but without Fabregas, who suffered a broken leg on the play that earned him the late spot kick, as well as winger Arshavin, the Gunners will turn to Samir Nasri to carry the scoring load. "He [Nasri] will of course be important because he will lead our game," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger told the club's official website. "I would love Cesc to be there 100 percent. But we have no choice, we have to compensate a little bit. "I have to find a good balance in the side to make life difficult for Barcelona. But of course Nasri is one of the players who can create." Wenger will also be without midfielder Song, who suffered a groin injury in Saturday's 1-0 win over Wolverhampton. Barca boss Pep Guardiola will have some defensive issues to deal with on Tuesday with both Pique and Puyol out through suspension. Rafael Marquez and Gabriel Milito would appear to be the most likely replacements, and even though Barca has the luxury of scoring two away goals in the first leg, the absence of Ibrahimovic will not be easy to overcome either. Injuries are also a major talking point in Wednesday's return leg at Old Trafford between Bayern Munich and Manchester United. Bayern claimed a 2-1 win in the first leg in Germany as they scored twice in the last 15 minutes to overcome an early goal from Wayne Rooney. Rooney injured his ankle in the final minutes of the match, and he was initially ruled out for at least two weeks. However, there are reports suggesting that Rooney could return as early as Wednesday, although they seem more hopeful than anything. With Rooney out, Dimitar Berbatov will once again need to supply the goals, something he failed to do in United's 2-1 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday. There is better news on the injury front for the German side as winger Arjen Robben, who missed the first leg win with a calf injury, will be included in the team for Wednesday's contest. The other match on Wednesday features the return leg of an all-French quarterfinal between Lyon and Bordeaux. Lisandro Lopez scored two goals in Lyon's 3-1 win last week, but he will miss the game through suspension, as will Sidney Govou. Bordeaux had won their last seven Champions League games before the 3-1 loss, and they stumbled again this past weekend in losing 2-1 to Nancy as they rested several players for the return leg. The fourth quarterfinal features Inter Milan traveling to Russia to face CSKA Moscow on Tuesday. Inter brings with them a 1-0 lead from the San Siro as Diego Milito scored in the 65th minute of the first leg contest, and their 3-0 win over Bologna this past weekend is further proof that Jose Mourinho's men are in top form. CSKA Moscow will be trying to become the first Russian team to reach the semifinals of the competition since Spartak Moscow did so in 1991.
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - This is a live update of Tiger Woods' press conference on Monday, April 5th. Woods is set to play in the Masters this week, his first competitive golf since the Nov. 27 car accident that led to revelations he was cheating
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Augusta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Answering question for the first time about performance-enhancing drugs, among other things, and saying he has not lived the right way for a while, Tiger Woods gave his first full press conference Monday.
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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 millionIn 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. To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs. |
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