Columbus hosts struggling K.C. in mid-week MLS fixture

Soccer Betting Lines

07/13/2010 - Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Columbus Crew return home when they host the Kansas City Wizards in Major League Soccer action at Crew Stadium on Wednesday.

The Eastern Conference leading Crew (8-2-4) are coming off a scoreless draw at Houston on Saturday that extended their road winless streak to three games, but defender Danny O'Rourke was happy with the result.

"Anytime you can go on the road against an established team like Houston in the heat out here, a tie is a good point," he told mlssoccer.com. "They're a really compact team. It's a small field. A point on the road, we'll definitely take it."

Wednesday's fixture will be the second between the two Eastern clubs this season, with an Emilio Renteria goal being the difference in the Crew's victory on May 23 at CommunityAmerica Ballpark to extend their unbeaten streak vs. Kansas City to eight games in league and cup play, dating back to 2007.

The Wizards (3-8-3) are in desperate need of a result on Wednesday, having lost three in a row while being shut out in three consecutive games for the second time this season. Their current scoreless streak is 325 minutes.

On top of that, the club is winless on the road this season, going 0-5-1 away from CommunityAmerica Ballpark.

The Wizards most recent game was a 2-0 loss at home to Chivas USA, but the team thinks it can take some positives out of that game.

"We did everything that you need to do to win the game," Wizards captain Davy Arnaud told mlssoccer.com. "But unfortunately we come out on the wrong end of things again. This might not sound right, but the way we played [vs. Chivas USA] is a positive sign."

A couple defensive lapses by Wizards defender Jimmy Conrad followed the trend the team has been following this season.

"I'm responsible for both goals," Conrad told mlssoccer.com. "Obviously, we've been giving up soft goals all year, and it was just my turn I guess to catch the disease. It's unfortunate. I feel bad that I put my team in that position. We have a lot of people, both on the field and off, who do a lot of work to make sure we win, and we're just not getting it done."

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.