Galaxy aims to overcome "12th man" at United

Soccer Betting Lines

07/16/2010 - Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Los Angeles Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena has plenty of fond memories from RFK Stadium, where he brings his team to face D.C. United on Sunday.

Arena guided United to three successive MLS Cup final appearances, winning two of them, and he will be hoping to leave the nation's capital with three points as the Galaxy tries to extend its lead atop the Western Conference table.

L.A. sits six points clear of Real Salt Lake in the West entering the weekend, but they will be trying to rebound from only their second loss of the season as they fell 2-0 to the New England Revolution last time out.

Both of the teams losses this season have come away from home, and Arena is expecting another tough contest on Sunday at RFK in front of a crowd that he says can act as "a 12th man for D.C. United."

"It's a great environment," he told mlssoccer.com. "When they have a good crowd in that stadium it rocks. Over the years it's gotten beat up a little bit and it is getting on in years, but when you step on the field it's still a special place for a game in MLS."

United will be hoping for a big boost from its home supporters, who have seen just two wins in eight home games this season.

The team is just one point clear of last-place Philadelphia prior to Saturday's action in the Eastern Conference, and they will be playing only a few days after losing 1-0 to Seattle Sounders FC on Thursday.

Roger Levesque scored in the 89th minute for Seattle to hand D.C. only its second loss in seven games, and head coach Curt Onalfo feels as though his side took a step back after making good progress in previous weeks.

"It's the grind of MLS; we took a whole bunch of steps forward, tonight we took a step back," Onalfo told mlssoccer.com following the defeat. "Is it the end of the world? It kind of is in my mind a little bit but we've got to lick our wounds and just keep progressing. We have a big game at home against the Galaxy, which is the best team in Major League Soccer at this point. And like I said earlier in the year, we have to learn from this stuff."

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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.

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