Hoffenheim downs Schalke to remain perfect

Soccer Betting Lines

09/10/2010 - Sinsheim, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hoffenheim continued its perfect start to the new Bundesliga season on Friday with a 2-0 win over Schalke at Rhein Neckar Arena.

Isaac Vorsah's goal in the 37th minute put the hosts in front, while an own goal from Schalke goalkeeper Manuel Neuer on the final kick of the game secured the win.

Hoffenheim has now won its first three games to start the season, while Schalke has lost all three of its matches and must regroup for its Champions League opener on Tuesday at Lyon.

Hoffenheim missed two good chances to go in front when Demba Ba smashed a shot over the net from seven yards following a right-wing cross, while Vedad Ibisevic had a low shot from inside the penalty area saved by Neuer.

The opener arrived 12 minutes later from a short corner kick as Andreas Beck's cross was headed inside the right post by Vorsah from eight yards.

One of the few chances that Schalke created in the match came right before the hour mark when a header from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was tipped off the crossbar by goalkeeper Tom Starke, but the visitors were unable to threaten the net the rest of the way, and a free kick from Sejad Salihovic in the dying seconds struck the post and deflected off of Neuer before rolling into the net.

Bayern Munich will try to rebound from a stunning loss to Kaiserslautern when they face a Werder Bremen side without defender Per Mertesacker, who suffered a broken eye socket while playing for Germany.

Wolfsburg eyes its first win at Borussia Dortmund, Monchengladbach tries to stay unbeaten when Eintracht visits Borussia Park, Hamburg attempts to make it three wins from three games when the club hosts Nurnberg, Bayer Leverkusen visits Hannover and Stuttgart invades Freiburg.

Kaiserslautern hopes to continue its surprising start on Sunday when the club visits Mainz, while Cologne looks to bounce back from two successive losses with a win at home against St Pauli.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In 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.

NFL Betting Lines

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