Notes from today's subscriber newsletter

football betting tips -

Several of you have asked and I will have the first (possibly two) long term bets for the upcoming English football season towards the end of next week, probably on Thursday or Friday.

I am going to leave the Brazilian fixtures for today, I was keen on Bahia last night ( +0.5 ) and let them pass, so am a little wary in any case. Gremio are very motivated to win their first home start for returning coach Renato Gaucho, but look a little on the short side.

Another "new" coach is Vasco da Gama boss Dorival Junior who has rejoined Gigante da Colina and will make his second debut tonight, against a Flamengo side he left for "economic reasons" less than four months ago, he will know the visitors well and be keen to start with a win. He averaged two points per match in his previous spell in charge at Vasco .

I was a little interested in this game, but an going to wait for the next round.

MLS: Vancouver Whitecaps-Chicago Fire

We have really "milked" the Fire over recent weeks and they have served us incredibly well, but I am in no real rush to back them this evening. My concern is that they have continued to concede quite freely ( no clean sheets in eight starts in all competitions , nine in the MLS, four times conceding two or more) and there are only so many times you can fall behind and pull a result out of the fire, if you will excuse the pun. Their unbeaten sequence ended at home to Sporting Kansas City last week and they also lost a home friendly to Club America 3-2 in midweek. They did heavily rotate their squad for the latter, but the number of soft goals conceded is a concern and they will have to change things around tonight with new signing Shaun Francis, who only joined Fire on Wednesday, set to make his debut, but the left back has only played one 90 minute spell in almost six weeks and that was at US Pro League level. Since Bakary Soumare returned, the backline has looked organised as a unit, but the individual errors have started to creep back in and it is a major concern. They arrive without suspended duo of holding player Daniel Paladini (13-2-2) and left back Gonzalo Segares (16-0-1), goalkeeper Sean Johnson ( 17 goals conceded in 14 starts....8 in three without him) is on international duty. The loss of Segares will probably force their hand regarding Francis and a not totally confident backline forced into a reshuffle, with a second string keeper behind them, is something we and the hosts can look to exploit.

Whitecaps are unbeaten in five and at home all season (6-3-0), they have scored two or more in the last six of those and with a trip to Galaxy, whom they can pass in the Western Conference with a win this evening, up next, they will be eager to claim the three points. They have two senior players away on international duty in left winger Russell Teibert (11-2-5) and centre back Carlyle Mitchell (just five starts in two seasons), Teibert is a loss, but this is more than counter balanced by the missing players for Fire. Whitecaps are also leaky at the back and two sets of mobile forwards should get some joy. I favour Whitecaps to win a shootout, the only time these two have met here previously in BC ended 4-2 and a repeat would not surprise.

1.25 units Vancouver Whitecaps -0.5 ball 2.07 asian line/Ibramarket.

0.5 units "over" 3.5 goals 3.10-3.50.

PGA Golf: John Deere Classic

Leaderboard and "in running" updates can be viewed on the PGA website.

The two leaders are "non winners" and most of you will know my thoughts about those, both players are very much of the "journeyman" mould and I am happy to look elsewhere......

Click here to read the rest of the newsletter.

Good Luck.

 
 

Don't be selfish, share the betting tips