Kuranyi's double carries Schalke to the top

Soccer Betting Lines

01/27/2007 - Frankfurt, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Kuranyi scored two goals and had a hand in the third as Schalke downed Eintracht, 3-1 at Commerzbank Arena on Saturday.

The win extends the club's unbeaten run to nine games and pushes Schalke to the top of the Bundesliga table, three points clear of Werder Bremen, who host Hanover on Sunday.

Gustavo Varela's first goal of the season handed the visitors the lead 16 minutes in, but Naohiro Takahara equalized for Eintracht shortly after the restart. Kuranyi then secured all three points for Schalke by scoring in the 70th minute and once again in stoppage time to put the game away.

The visitors began the match as the more dangerous side, and after a few near chances, put home the opener in the 16th minute. Kuranyi found plenty of room on the wing before spotting Varela on a run towards goal. He picked out the midfielder and Varela ripped a shot into the lower-right corner of the net that gave keeper Markus Proll no chance.

The lead nearly doubled one minute later as Schalke missed a golden opportunity thanks to a fine defensive play by Sotorios Kyrgiakos. Lincoln got in behind the Eintracht defense and slid the ball past Proll towards a wide open Halil Altintop. However, Kyrgiakos was tracking back on the play and just got a foot to the pass to deflect it out.

Both teams threatened before halftime but came up empty. However, it wasn't long after the restart that the hosts evened the score. Benjamin Huggel fired a shot towards goal but the ball was blocked. It then fell luckily for Takahara, who pushed it past an onrushing Manuel Neuer in the Schalke net to make it 1-1.

Schalke then made the most of a corner kick in the 70th minute to surge ahead. Marcelo Bordon got his head on the kick and flicked it on towards the back post, where Kuranyi was there to head it home and give Schalke a one-goal lead.

The home side then pressed for the tying goal, but with just minutes remaining, Kuranyi stuffed in a stoppage-time goal to put things away. With Eintracht pushing everyone forward, Schalke hit back with a counter attack that saw Lincoln feed Kuranyi from the left wing and allow the German international to maneuver past Proll and finish comfortably to account for the final score line.

In other Bundesliga play on Saturday, Marcio Borges scored in the 89th minute to earn Arminia a 1-1 draw with Hamburg, Energie got a pair of first-half goals from Sergiu Radu to down Monchengladbach 3-1 and Marko Pantelic scored his league-leading 11th goal on a penalty kick in the 86th minute to give Hertha a 2-1 win against Wolfsburg. Nurnberg scored three times in the second half to defeat Stuttgart and last-place Mainz won for the second time this season as Marco Rose scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win over Bochum.

On Sunday, Werder Bremen will try to keep pace with Schalke as they host Hanover and Bayer Leverkusen hits the road to meet Aachen.

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Football Betting

NFL Football Betting Online

The San Francisco 49ers (5-11 SU, 5-10-1 ATS in 2007; 1-1 SU & ATS in pre-season) found some offensive life last week, and they will try to build some momentum on Thursday night as they travel to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears (7-9 SU & ATS in 2007; 0-2 SU, 0-1-1 ATS in pre-season) in an NFL matchup that is set to get underway at 8 PM ET at Soldier Field (natural turf) in Chicago.

Thursday, August 21

NFL betting odds: CHICAGO -3 (-120), Total 37

NOTABLE STAT: San Francisco was last in points, last in total offense in 2007
KEY NFL BETTING TREND: SF has lost its last seven SU on pre-season road

In the BetUS NFL pre-season football betting odds, the Bears are listed as a three-point favorite (laying -120), with the total posted at 37 points.

Here are some NFL football betting trends as they relate to this matchup (reflecting numbers going into the 2008 season):

* SF has lost 11 of its last 14 games SU
* SF has covered three of its last 11 games
* SF has lost six of its last seven road games SU
* SF has covered one of its last seven road games
* CHI has covered five of its last eight games
* CHI has played five of its last seven games OVER the total
* CHI has covered four of its last 13 home games
* SF has lost its last seven pre-season road games SU
* CHI has covered two of its last seven home pre-season games

Well, I guess we should congratulate the Bears on making their quarterback choice for the season's opening game, as they have designated Kyle Orton the starter against Indianapolis. The Bears obviously have lost patience with Rex Grossman, and what they do with him at this point is anybody's guess. But suffice it to say that there isn't a quarterback competition anymore, at least in training camp.

Meanwhile, the quarterback competition may also be settled in San Francisco, where the Niners bounced back from a lackluster 18-6 loss to the Raiders, in which they turned the ball over four times, to execute a 34-6 rout of the Packers last Saturday. However, coach Mike Nolan has stopped short of saying that, insisting that the job is still open. But J.T. O'Sullivan, the longshot of the trio of Niner signal-callers who opened camp, will start his third straight pre-season game here. Against Green Bay, O'Sullivan was only 8-for-17, and was intercepted, but he also threw for 9.1 yards an attempt, which included a 59-yard TD pass to Josh Morgan. The others struggled.

Some offensive cohesion is badly needed, in light of the Niners' dismal 2007 campaign, in which they were dead last in the NFL in scoring, with just 13.7 points a game. And O'Sullivan is the guy who is most familiar with offensive coordinator Mike Martz's exacting system, because he learned it last year in Detroit. O'Sullivan will go at least the entire first half and may even last longer. He'll be relieved by Alex Smith, with Shawn Hill doing the mop-up work. Three receivers who were out last week - Bryant Johnson, Ashley Lelie and Arnaz Battle - will miss this game too.

That may hurt a little here, especially since the Bears will be using a lot of their defensive starters. And it's the defense that has been keeping the Bears in games thus far. In fact, the defense and special teams were responsible for the first 19 points Chicago scored against Seattle last time out, as the offense really struggled with Grossman at the controls. But maybe the first-team offense has a chance to settle a little bit as it works more with Orton at the helm.

Certainly we have concerns about the Bears' offensive line, but we like the scenario for them here, especially if O'Sullivan doesn't make some bis plays. The Niners may have nowhere else to turn right now, and they have lost seven straight road games in the pre-season. Let's take Chicago, the three-point favorite in the NFL football betting odds.

CHICAGO -3 (-120) **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

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