USA vs South Korea June 20, 2013

The United States take on South Korea for the second time in quick succession on Thursday, less than a week after defeating them in a friendly, 4-1.

A sensational trio rose to new heights after last week's victory in Massachusetts. Kristie Mewis got the fans on their feet in the third minute after scoring on a rebound. Lauren Cheney followed with a goal in the seventh minute while Carli Lloyd pressed the South Koreans throughout the match and found the back of the net in the 57th minute. It would not be a surprise if Sermanni does not play all three tonight. Mewis may be replaced by Kelley O'Hara and Cheney might make way for Megan Rapinoe.

The roster for Thursdays game will be unconventional as Sermanni should take into consideration that 12 NT players will be required to suit up for their clubs over the weekend. Therefore, it is possible that the European club players that were left off the starting roster last week will get their more field time on Thursday.

With that said, Christen Press, Whitney Engen, Yael Averbuch and Meghan Kingenberg could make appearances. If this is the case then Sermanni's best option to start up front with Christen Press would be Sydney Leroux, considering that her club is not playing this week. This gives star strikers Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach time to rest.

Match Date/Time: Thursday June 20 2013 at 7: 30 pm ET

Venue: Red Bull Arena, Harrison, NJ

San Antonio Spurs vs Miami Heat: NBA Finals Game

Though the San Antonio Spurs would beg to differ, there's nothing better than a Game 7.
Trailing the Spurs 3-2 and facing elimination, the Miami Heat came storming back from behind in Game 6 to force a series-deciding Game 7.

Leveling the playing field has changed things for both teams.


It's still championship or bust for the Heat, but they're at home, clad with the knowledge that they didn't put their best foot forward by any means in Game 6 and still won. Momentum has shifted.

Could the NBA season really end like this, with the Miami Heat, who looked absolutely invincible for most of the regular season, vanquished at home by the ancient San Antonio Spurs? In Game Five, San Antonio's Manu Ginobili returned from the dead and Danny Green broke Ray Allen's NBA Finals record for made three-pointers while Allen was right there on the opposing bench. The Spurs took a 3-2 series lead and now have two games at Miami's American Airlines Arena to close out the series, clinching their 5th title in franchise history and improving their perfect record in NBA Finals to 5-0.

Well, if the Spurs are going to win a title tonight that means they will have to defeat the Miami Heat two games in a row, something which hasn't happened in a long long time. Not at all during the postseason (granted, the Heat have been having a problem winning two games in a row for the last month).

 Being back at home should also give Miami an advantage tonight. The scary thing about Sunday night's loss for Miami is that it didn't seem like an effort/attention/psychological issue, which is how the Heat's losses during this series have mostly been explained away. The Heat were in the game right up until the final minute, the Spurs' lead was down to one point in the game's third quarter. The Spurs just totally and utterly outplayed the Heat, there's no "we outplayed ourselves" excuse available for Miami's Game Five performance. The San Antonio Spurs were a better team, in fact they looked like the exact kind of team capable of handing the Heat their first back-to-back loss in months.



For the first time all postseason, they are facing a win-or-go-home situation. And for the second time in the last eight years, they've been pushed to Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

Will the Spurs be able to steal another win on the road and lay claim to their fourth title in the last decade, or will the Heat hand San Antonio's Big Three their first ever Finals loss en route to a second straight title?

There really isn't anything better than a Game 7.


Time: Thursday, June 20, 9 p.m. ET

Where: AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami

Series: Tied 3-3

Nigeria vs Uruguay June 20, 2013

Nigeria may have opened their tournament with a thumping 6-1 win over minnows Tahiti, but they have not been in the best of form going into the tournament, and will certainly need to improve if they are to overcome Uruguay in their 11pm kickoff tonight.

Despite their big win, they conceded a surprise goal to the small nation, and came in for some criticism for their display.

Where: Arena Fonte Nova

When: 23.00 BST



Their opponents were beaten in a close game by tournament favourites Spain, and have plenty of attacking potential with their world class duo of Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani upfront, who should make Uruguay favourites to win tonight and qualify as group runners-up behind Spain.

Uruguay were disappointing in their first game, and could head for an early exit if they don’t improve tonight, as another win would take Nigeria through to the semi-finals. They will be hoping for more inspiration from hat-trick hero Nnamdi Oduamadi, a promising young player coming through at AC Milan.

Uruguay manager Oscar Tabarez is expected to name an unchanged side for tonight’s game, and will expect his team to enjoy more possession than they managed against Spain, who were dominant as expected in terms of keeping the ball.

Spain vs Tahiti June 20, 2013


Expect Spain to change their entire team or close to it against Tahiti on Thursday afternoon. While the Tahitians put up a decent showing for most of their 6-1 defeat to Nigeria, there's obviously a bit of a different between Nigeria and Spain, as good as the Super Eagles are. A team of Segunda players would be favored over Tahiti, so Spain's senior B team should fare just fine.

Tahiti gets its big moment


Tahiti doesn't have a professional league and their captain lives in his mother's basement. Good luck trying to find a more unlikely qualifier for a major international tournament.
If you're expecting a record win for Spain ... well, don't expect them to be that mean. La Roja's biggest ever win is a 13-0 thumping of Bulgaria in a friendly back in 1933. Between Spain's fetish for passing in circles for minutes on end and Tahiti's reasonably competent showing against Nigeria, double-digit goals don't seem terribly likely.

Also, they have a guy who's better than Lionel Messi.

Match date/time: Thursday, 3 p.m. ET
We all know who is going to win today's game between Spain and Tahiti. But the odds for Tahiti are the longest I have ever seen for a match and may not come around for years.

Make no mistake, there will be no Tahiti treat today or on any other day in this tournament. However, you need to see the incredibly wild offerings for today's game. The spectrum is so wide, you may never see them at a major international tournament for years.

Every bookmaker understands how lopsided this game will be, and as a result they have dropped their total amount of bet options considerably. For example, there are only 17 betting offerings for this game, whereas the Nigeria-Uruguay tilt three hours later offers 192.

The real entertainment here is seeing that Spain is paying out 1.01 to win the match. That's right. For every $10 you wager on Spain, you will net a grand total of ten cents. Of course, if you are wagering on this game you will have no legitimate options but to look at either following: handicap, correct score, or amount of goals that specific players will score.

William Hill expects the final score to be 7-0, and that is paying out 6.00 right now. But with Nigeria beating the islanders 6-1 on opening day, I fully expect the much more talented and skilled Spaniards to hit the double digit mark. If they don't, it is only because they will give mercy and take the foot off the pedal. It is hard to say how many will be scored, but as a measuring stick the 10-0 is at 9.00.

The match handicaps alone start at the -6 mark and it's at 1.33, something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. The Spain -8 is at 2.10 while the -9 is at 3.00. Worth a ten dollar bet just for the entertainment value alone.

Just to score in the game Tahiti are paying 5.00. To take a point, Tahiti is listed at an unbelievable 17.00. For the win you ask? Try the astronimical 51.00!

The first line to hit over evens (2.00) in the over total goals section is the over 9.5.

Who will score for Spain? Likely a lot of players. But for the first time ever, the entire Spanish starting 11 are all paying under 1.50 to score anytime during the match. David Villa, Fernando Torres, and Roberto Soldado are all being issued at 3.00 to score a hat-trick.

Although the odds are absolutely unheard of, try out a total goals or handicap pick to at least make it worth watching.
Venue: Maracana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil


Contact

matchtopic@gmail.com