Ajax level with AZ after downing NAC

Soccer Betting Lines

12/12/2008 - Amsterdam, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ajax is level on 32 points with AZ Alkmaar at the top of the Eredivisie table after the Amsterdam club secured a 3-0 win over fourth-place NAC on Friday.

Dario Cvitanich opened the scoring in the 26th minute and Luis Suarez added a second goal from the penalty spot early in the second half after Kees Kwakman was sent off for conceding the spot-kick.

Rasmus Lindgren then capped the scoring nine minutes later for Ajax, which has lost just once in its last 10 league games.

NAC missed two good chances early in the match, but they were punished in the 26th minute when Suarez set up Cvitanich to put Ajax ahead.

The visitors had another chance to crack the scoreboard early in the second half but failed when Joonas Kolkka's header was cleared off the goal line by Gregory Van Der Wiel.

Once again, Ajax capitalized as Siem De Jong was brought down inside the box by Kwakman, who received his second yellow card for the foul. Suarez then converted the spot-kick to make it 2-0 before Lindgren capped the scoring in the 64th minute with a blast from 30 yards.

AZ will have a chance to regain sole possession of the top spot with a win at Feyenoord on Saturday, while Twente will try to keep pace at Groningen.

PSV Eindhoven travels to Vitesse, last-place Volendam visits middle-of-the- table Utrecht, Heracles entertains Sparta, Den Haag squares off with Roda, Graafschap invades Heerenveen and Willem II plays host to NEC.

Playsoccergamble Soccer Betting News

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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.