Kaiserslautern shocks Bayern Munich

Soccer Betting Lines

08/27/2010 - Kaiserslautern, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ivo Ilicevic and Srdjan Lakic scored in a one-minute span late in the first half and Kaiserslautern shocked Bayern Munich, 2-0, on Friday at Fritz Walter Stadium.

Ilicevic scored in the 36th minute for his second goal of the season and Lakic followed with third in just two games in the 37th minute. Kaiserslautern held on to continue its perfect return to the Bundesliga and leads the league ahead of the weekend matches.

Kaiserslautern, which earned promotion to the Bundesliga this season, defeated Cologne, 3-1, last week to mark its return to Germany's top flight.

Bayern opened defense of its title with a last-second 2-1 win over Wolfsburg when Bastian Schweinsteiger scored in stoppage time. Thomas Muller also scored last week, but Bayern never rebounded from his miss against Kaiserslautern.

Schweinsteiger put Muller through into the area in the 25th minute, but with only Kaiserslautern goalie Tobias Sippel to beat and two teammates open to his right, the World Cup's top scorer fired wide of the right post from 12 yards.

Ivicia Olic glanced a header just wide of the right post in the 33rd as Bayern pressured again, but Kaiserslautern answered with two quick goals on its only good first-half chances.

Christian Tiffert set up the opener with a pass across the top of the box that was dummied by a teammate and rolled to Ilicevic. Ilicevic drove the ball into the upper-right corner from 22 yards, leaving Bayern goalie Hans-Jorg Butt no chance.

Before Bayern could refocus, Kaiserslautern struck again through Lakic. After a turnover in midfield, Ilicevic set up Lakic, who fired into the bottom-left corner. Ilicevic's pass should have been cleared by Bayern center back Holger Badstuber, but it glanced off his foot to leave Lakic wide open against Butt.

Bayern had a few chances to get back in the game, as Miroslav Klose was denied by Sippel in the 47th and then fired high in the 50th.

Kaiserslautern's Rodnei headed just wide of the left post in the 75th to give Bayern some hope in the final 15 minutes, but Toni Kroos fired wide right just one minute later as Bayern's hopes faded.

Bayern failed to produce many chances over the last minutes but Kaiserslautern did suffer a blow when Ilicevic picked up his second yellow card in stoppage time.

On Saturday, Schalke hosts Hannover, Werder Bremen hosts Cologne, Wolfsburg hosts Mainz, Eintracht hosts Hamburg, Nurnberg hosts Freiburg and St. Pauli hosts Hoffenheim.

On Sunday, Bayer Leverkusen hosts Monchengladbach and Stuttgart hosts Borussia Dortmund.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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