Olympic Times – Sports Daily

With only two days to go and excitement building another strange phenomenon is starting to appear. Football fever is said to be rampaging in several countries around the world. It manifests itself in several different ways and can lead to anything from singing and dancing in the streets to driving around in cars which have been painted in the patients national colours. The funny thing is to look at anyone who has this strange disease you wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with them. It also takes different forms in different countries.

In England for example, the home of the football which seems to be the cause of the disease, every four years there is a slump in production tied in to a large rise in people missing from work. The only place this doesn’t happen is in the pubs which is kind of strange. Maybe there is some special medicine which you can get in them. One pub in Manchester has seen the manager changing his name to Fabio Capello and all the staff changing their names to Wayne Rooney for the duration of the World Cup.

Its not all bad news though, the Russians were able to announce a 70% fall in crime rates while their team was in action during USA 94 and Bangladeshi students have had their exams moved until the 14th July a short period after the final has been played. Brazilian banks on the other hand have been told they can close if they want during matches to avoid the chances of raids on their branches and vans while the Brazil national team are in action.

Algeria’s sales of plasma TV’s have hit the roof in preparation for their first appearance in 24 years with some people retiring early so they don’t miss a minute of the action. In 2006 the inhabitants of Khartoum in Sudan, sat in the dark and watched the matches after their local power company warned of power cuts if they overused some of their household appliances. So watch out for outbreaks of this deadly disease, it should start appearing in a country near you in about 2 days if I was to hazard a guess.

World Cup Spread Betting news this morning sees both Joe Cole and Michael Ballack being released on free transfers which should start a bit of a scramble especially for Cole. Portugal have been hit with the news that Nani is out of their plans after he injured his collarbone. There are also concerns over Pepe who is trying to regain fitness in time for the kickoff. Spain’s Andres Iniesta is to undergo a scan to determine the extent of an injury he picked up in the 6-0 thrashing of Poland. The Spanish are starting to fire on all cylinders now even though they are trying to play down the favourite’s tag which has been attached. Arjen Robben will miss Holland’s first match. John Terry says he is concerned by the altitude and hopes the team will have fully acclimatised by Saturday. He is also looking forward to renewing his partnership with Ledley King which began many moons ago when the pair played together for Senrab, a Sunday league side in London.

And finally, beware of Argentina after Lionel Messi came out and said that player for player there is no better team at this years World Cup. He’s dead right if they can just bring it all together and play as a cohesive unit.

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Participate in the action and arrive on the playing field, if Xbox and PS3 Madden 10 is your thing. On the gridiron, are you one gamer who is in control? Are you one gamer who easily gets the better of the competition? Then pick up your controller, spark up the video game console, and announce to the video game world your Xbox and PS3 Madden 10 talents.

On their predecessor, PS3 and Xbox Madden 10 has really innovated. The football game video game experience even more lifelike has really been made by PS3 and Xbox Madden 10. This is in no small part due to such new features as the PRO-TAK animation technology and the more realistic player momentum. In their praise, it is no surprise that the reviewers have all been unanimous. To playing on Sundays they have declared that this is as close as you will come. In high esteem no wonder football game video game fans hold this one. You recognize the deal here, we are guessing. If you desire to outscore your rivals at PS3 and Xbox Madden 10 it behooves you to have a strong knowledge of the fundamentals. And by that, we mean that you should avoid those fledgling errors, lest your opponent hang you out to dry. Sure you’ve all but memorized the PS3 and Xbox Madden 10 playbook recognize which play industrial plant best in which scenario so do. A simple piece of advice that you should not forget here is, and just in case you Xbox and PS3 sports game players need reminding. Even though it enables you to do good yardage, do not acquire crazy with the passing. In physics, every action produces an equal because as we learned (or something like that, did pass physics I never). You really run a serious lay on the line of acquiring intercepted, and the downside to passing is. Turnover is not a good thing in the game of PS3 and Xbox Madden 10. So, before you start gainsaying the video game world at large, recognize the game – and recognize all the correct moves.

Of advice another helpful bit — “be prepared” and follow the boy scouts mantra. Be prepared to act quickly in case you end up throwing one too many passes, in this case — and intercepted they get. Do not let your opponent’s gain lay the stage for a crippling overcome. Just get in there with a strong defense, in the case of an interception. Nothing worse than watching helplessly as your foreman intercepts, then literally takes the ball and makes off with it. Inquire the Indianapolis Colts, if you do not believe me. There is no debating it, yeah — one of the all time great sports video games, PS3 and Xbox Madden is, truly. As much as we idolize all the other PlayStation and Xbox sports video games, really an unbeatable series is PS3 and Xbox Madden. For the hardcore video game community, this is the PlayStation and Xbox football video game that has placed the standard in football video games. To cement your reputation in the video game world, if you really desire, conquering the fundamentals of PS3 and Xbox Madden 10 is where to begin.

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The Australian football pools season gets under way in April, and Australian-based pools coupons are published in Britain from mid-late May onward. Australian pools are a very different proposition to British pools. Team-form based systems still work, but with a few tweaks. Analysis of the historical data uncovers some interesting patterns which can be useful in optimising the odds for football pools players.

So What’s Different?

* The game. Aussie football is not soccer as we know it. It is much more physical and injury rates are much higher than in soccer.

* Playing standards. The best teams play well below the standard of even an English third division team.

* Teams die and are re-born regularly and change their names regularly.

* There are usually several instances of points deductions for breaking of rules each season.

* The difference in performance between top and bottom sides in a division can be massive, and when this is the case then a lower performing team might not even show for a match, resulting in a forfeit.

* With a forfeited match, a score of even 10-0 can be awarded against the loser, which has a big impact on goal difference.

* Players change teams with great regularity, and the move of just one good player can make a massive difference to team’s performance.

It really is a frontiersman’s game!

Whilst most serious punters accept that ‘playing to form’ is much more apparent in Australian football because of the much wider range of standards within a given league, there are other interesting aspects too. For example, the statistics show that when a team loses at home, then the probability of winning its next match, if it is an ‘Away’, is relatively high.

Typically, almost half of teams avoid losing in away games following a home defeat.

This means that when completing an Aussie pools coupon, the punter needs a much stronger bias towards Away wins than would be the case in the English football pools.

Home-Away-Draw Sequences

More detailed analysis of the home-lose-win sequences can be rewarding, and uncovering ‘Away’ bankers for a coupon is possible – something which is unthinkable on the English coupon (think about some of the ‘certain away wins’ in the English Premiership in the most recent season, which just didn’t turn out to be as expected).

Again, this is down to the performance range within a given league – very wide in Australian football, and relatively much narrower in British soccer. Indeed, predicting Away wins is much more lucrative for Aussie pools.

League Differences

Now in the UK football pools, some people may have a view about biasing draw selections towards (or away from) Scottish leagues, for example. In Australian pools, there are clear differences in performance statistics across the various leagues (there may be up to twelve or thirteen leagues appearing on an Australian football pools coupon); this affects the strategy for draw selection on the Treble Chance football pools.

Fixed Odds

Finally, fixed odds betting on Aussie pools can be rewarding if enough time and effort is put into analysing the bookmakers’ odds. The wide range of performance levels means that occasionally a bookie may miscalculate odds and make it possible to lay bets across bookmakers which are almost certain to pay. That is the subject of another article.

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