Rangers hope to close the gap on Celtic

Soccer Betting Lines

01/27/2012 - Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rangers welcome Hibernian to Ibrox in Scottish Premier League play on Saturday with an opportunity to place some additional pressure on first-place Celtic.

The Hoops lead the league with 59 points through 24 games, four points better than their fierce city rivals in as many contests.

But with Celtic set to face First Division side Falkirk in the semifinals of the Scottish Communities League Cup on Sunday, three points against Hibs on Saturday would provide the Gers with some much needed rejuvenation as they look to move within a point of the leaders.

But Rangers will have to do it without its leading scorer after it was revealed that Nikica Jelavic will miss the clash with an illness.

"[Jelavic] won't be available [Saturday]," said Rangers boss Ally McCoist. "He's got a bug and the doctor has been to see him, and his family has been affected too."

Rangers are coming off of a 1-1 draw with Aberdeen that saw American midfielder Maurice Edu rescue a point at Ibrox just four minutes after Kari Arnason put the visitors in front.

Hibernian, meanwhile, fell to St. Johnstone, 3-2, in its last outing, leaving the club second from bottom with just 18 points on the season.

The Gers hold the edge over Hibs in overall SPL meetings, claiming 32 wins from 46 matches. There have been eight draws.

Elsewhere in Scottish Premier League play Saturday, Aberdeen, buoyed by the addition of midfielder Stephen Hughes, hopes to extend its unbeaten run to five games when it hosts last-place Dunfermline.

Inverness, having landed French midfielder Claude Gnakpa on loan for the remainder of the season, goes for its third-straight win when it hosts St. Mirren at Caledonian Stadium.

And finally, Motherwell looks to build upon its 3-1 defeat of Dunfermline in its last outing as it hosts St. Johnstone at Fir Park.

Jazzzsports 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.