Alkmaar climb into second with 3-0 win

Soccer Betting Lines

01/28/2007 - Alkmaar, Holland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AZ Alkmaar climbed into second place in the Dutch Eredivisie standings - at least temporarily - with a 3-0 win over Sparta Rotterdam on Saturday.

Goals by Shota Arveladze and Maarten Martens and an own goal by Steve Olfers earned three points for the team and jumped them over idle Ajax in the table.

PSV still own a nine point lead in the table before its contest on Sunday.

Sparta's struggling defense showed its recent form when Arveladze opened the scoring in the 22nd minute.

He took a long pass in the box, turned and chipped a shot off the post and into the net for the 1-0 lead.

A couple minutes after the break Olfers put the ball into his own net to give the hoe squad a 2-0 lead before Martens deposited a pass from Danny Koevermans in the 52nd minute to close out the scoring.

In the other Eredivisie contest on Saturday, Willem II and Vitesse Arnhem battled to a scoreless draw, FC Utrecht topped relegation-zoned Excelsior 1-0 and NEC edged NAC Breda 2-1.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.