Borini's brace powers Roma past Inter

Soccer Betting Lines

02/05/2012 - Rome, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A goal in each half from Fabio Borini helped Roma to a comfortable 4-0 win over Inter Milan at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday.

Juan put Roma in front after 13 minutes when he headed home Francesco Totti's corner kick, while Borini added a second goal shortly before the break after being set up by Miralem Pjanic.

The lead was stretched to 3-0 early in the second half when Juan's long ball was tracked down by Borini, who got into the penalty area and slotted his shot past goalkeeper Julio Cesar.

The visitors had no answer for Roma's attack and the hosts grabbed a fourth goal in the final minutes as Bojan Krkic beat three defenders before firing his shot past Cesar to cap the emphatic win.

Roma remains in sixth with the victory but closes to within two points of Inter, which has claimed just one point from its last three matches following a seven-game winning streak.

AC Milan 0, Napoli 0

Milan, Italy - AC Milan was held to a 0-0 draw at the San Siro by Napoli on Sunday in a match that saw Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic sent off midway through the second half.

The result leaves the Rossoneri one point back of leaders Juventus, which also finished in a 0-0 draw on Sunday against Siena. Napoli is now winless in its last five games and stays in seventh place in Serie A.

Chances were at a premium on Sunday and Milan had the best one in the 51st minute when Robinho was played in on goal by Ibrahimovic but failed to beat goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis.

The Napoli 'keeper did well to deny Ibrahimovic in the 63rd minute and the Swede soon received his marching orders for slapping Napoli's Salvatore Aronica.

Despite being up a man Napoli was unable to find the net and the club's winless streak was extended for another week.

Genoa 3, Lazio 2

Genoa, Italy - Bosko Jankovic netted two goals and Genoa held off a late charge from Lazio to secure a 3-2 win at the Luigi Ferraris Stadium on Sunday.

Rodrigo Palacio tallied the opener in the 10th minute and Jankovic doubled the lead midway through the first half with his first goal of the match.

Jankovic added to Lazio's misery when he scored in the opening seconds after the break to make it 3-0.

But Lazio pulled a goal back in the 54th minute from the penalty spot courtesy of Cristian Ledesma before the capital side was reduced to 10 men with Mobido Diakite being sent off eight minutes from time.

A goal from Alvaro Gonzalez in the 90th minute made it a one-goal game, but there wasn't enough time left for Lazio to muster a third goal, snapping a run of three wins in four games for the visitors.

Parma 2, Chievo 1

Verona, Italy - Parma moved further away from the relegation zone on Sunday after Siqueira Luciano's own goal handed the club a 2-1 win at Chievo.

Sebastian Giovinco's ninth goal of the season just after halftime gave Parma the lead, but his opener was canceled out four minutes later by Cyril Thereau.

Parma pressed hard for a second goal and was rewarded with a bit of good fortune in the 69th minute when Giovinco's shot took a deflection off of Luciano and found its way inside the right post.

The visitors move 10 points clear of the drop zone with the win and ahead of Chievo on goal difference.

Fiorentina 3, Udinese 2

Florence, Italy - Udinese failed to close the gap on the top two teams in Serie A on Sunday after sustaining a 3-2 defeat at Fiorentina.

Juventus and AC Milan were both held to 0-0 draws on Sunday, meaning that Udinese could close to within a point of the top spot with a win.

And things started well for the visitors who took the lead inside 15 minutes with a goal from Antonio Di Natale.

However, things turned around in the 39th minute when Stevan Jovetic converted a penalty kick to level the match at halftime before Mattia Cassani tallied his first goal of the season to put the Viola in front.

Jovetic then netted another goal from the penalty spot six minutes from time before Gabriel Torje pulled one back in the 89th for Udinese, which sits four points back of leaders Juventus.

Fiorentina is in the midst of its best run of the season having claimed 10 points from its last five games.

Juventus 0, Siena 0

Turin, Italy - Juventus remained on top of Serie A on Sunday despite being held to a 0-0 draw by a stubborn Siena team.

A 0-0 draw by AC Milan with Napoli keeps Juve one point clear at the top of the league. Siena moves three points above the drop zone with Sunday's result.

Juventus dominated possession but failed to generate many decent scoring chances, and it was Siena that nearly stole all three points in the final minutes of the match.

A shot from Pablo Gonzalez was saved by Juve goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, but the rebound was left for Alessandro Gazzi, who fired over the net from close range.

Lecce 0, Bologna 0

Lecce, Italy - Lecce and Bologna battled to a 0-0 draw at the Via del Mare on Sunday as both sides continue their relegation struggle.

Bologna entered the day five points above the drop zone and unbeaten in its last four games, while Lecce had collected seven points from its last four games to greatly improve its chances of survival.

However, neither side was able to pick up three valuable points, although Lecce had the best chance eight minutes after halftime.

Luis Muriel rounded Bologna goalkeeper Jean Francois Gillet, but fired his shot over the empty net, while Lecce's chances were greatly reduced in the 74th minute when Morris Carrozzieri was sent off.

Novara 0, Cagliari 0

Novara, Italy - Novara snapped a five-game losing streak on Sunday but still had to settle for a 0-0 draw at home against Cagliari, which does little to enhance its chances of survival.

Novara remains on the bottom of the league and seven points from safety with the result, although it took some good goalkeeping from Cagliari's Michael Agazzi to keep them out.

Novara had two good chances to claim all three points but both times Agazzi was up to the task as he first denied a powerful shot from Santiago Garcia before making a stop on Simone Pesce at full stretch.

Palermo 2, Atalanta 1

Palermo, Italy - Palermo's unbeaten streak reached four games on Sunday as the club recorded a 2-1 win over 10-man Atalanta at the Renzo Barbera.

The match took a major turn in the 25th minute when Atalanta goalkeeper Andrea Consigli was sent off for bringing down Palermo striker Fabrizio Miccoli inside the penalty area.

Miccoli picked himself up and converted the spot kick before Igor Budan made it 2-0 early in the second half.

Maximiliano Moralez pulled a goal back for Atalanta in the 56th minute, but didn't have enough left for an equalizer, which leaves the visitors with four losses from their last five games.

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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.

SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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