6/27: Bundesliga Ends, FA Cup Returns & Milan vs. Roma!, & More

Martino Puccio and Davis Mattek are here to preview a ton of top soccer matchups and leagues as the sport continues to roll through the rest of the summer. With top matchups from England's FA Cup over to the Bundesliga Champions League race the guys have you covered! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, thanks for downloading the podcast. If you want to
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Enjoy the show and thanks so much for listening. Hello everybody,

(00:26):
and welcome on into the Free Kick here on the
Sports Grid TV Network. I'm Martino Puccio. Alongside me as
always for this amazing summer of soccer is Davis Mannock. Davis,
how's it going? You know, it's going great. Got to
see Marciall. Anthony Marciall hit a hat trick from Manchester United,
one of my favorite players of all time any sport.

(00:46):
Never never felt like Marciall gets his due from the
United Faithful, you know, feels like they're always trying to
sell them away. They they brought in Lukaku, you know,
and that failed, and it feels like they're always cycling
through strikers and United when you know, I think they're
I think their answers right there, they have their man Yeah.
I think it's also a creative issue too, right, I
mean they didn't have anyone. All of a sudden, Bruno

(01:08):
Fernandez shows up and they get Puga back. That's, you know,
the best creative duo that they've had, I don't know,
probably since Surf Sir Alex Ferguson left. I mean, it's
it's been that dire for them over there, so I
mean great to see for them. You know. My favorite
part is now it's kind of like the World Cup
in the summer where you wake up and you just
watch all the games because they play them, like whether

(01:28):
it was in Russia, South Africa or the Brazil the
past tournaments that the times where you know, you could
just get up watch all the games in a row
during the day. That's kind of what it's like now.
You know, games start at one o'clock, then you finish
that game, you know, like today's like Arsenal Arsenal play
and then city play and then if a Law League
game starts at four o'clock, Like I'm basically watching from

(01:51):
thirty one o'clock all the way to six six at
night over here, and it's just it's just been so
action packed. I've had a couple of parlays I would
have won one yester day but inter drew at the
last minute um against Oswallow, which was definitely very annoying
for me, so that that really got on my nerves.
But um, other than that, how did how did you
do betting wise? DFS wise? Did you make a lot

(02:14):
of money this weekend? Did you have Marshall Allen one
of your lineups? Yeah? So you know, gambling has has
been going pretty well. Actually just had one come through today,
Burnley as the dog against Watford. You know, I basically
just think Watford is uh not a very strong team
at all, especially when they are playing They Watford played

(02:36):
this kind of a weird lineup today, so you know,
they play without Holo Bass and their lineups, so they're
really relying on you know, Tom Cleverly on the outside
and is Mail a sar. Sorry, I think is you know,
a pretty strong player, but that this left side for
Watford when they have Tom Cleverly and Adam Messina, neither
of them are particularly ambulatory players. So I just really

(02:58):
liked the idea of you know that Burnley, they they
always have a plan. They moved the ball out to
the wings and they whacked the ball in the inside
and they're gonna drop penalties or they're gonna score headers,
and you know, just that classic English football and against
teams that are gonna let them put crosses in. You know,
I think I think they are pretty strong. Yeah, I mean,
look why I guess Watford was just a fluke. I

(03:19):
guess when they beat Liverpool, right, I mean, who could
have saw that coming? Um? Yeah, I hit I hit
one yesterday. I it was actually pretty decent. Odds that
we're on Vanduel was around plus one seventy five ahead
United money line Liverpool money line, Lazio Atalanta even two
and a half is what it was. The over three
and a half of that game was around plus one forty.
It dipped around to a little bit too, plus one

(03:41):
thirty two. I thought it was the best value in
terms of totals um when when that day took place.
I mean, look, they were three to three in the
first game. Atalanta was just absolutely unbelievable with the amount
of goals they've been scoring that they have seven now
in their first two games since coming back, and technically
eight if you want to count the own goal that
they score it as well. So out of all the

(04:03):
teams that we've seen come back besides Bayern Munich in
every single league. I think Atalanta has been playing the
best and hasn't and is one of those teams that
doesn't look like they skip a beat whatsoever. And and
that's with a lot of other top teams too that
we've seen come back, right like Real Madrid's, Manchester Cities
looked really good to Dortman was great when they came back.

(04:24):
I think Atalanta is just I mean, it's just something
else and I could only imagine how much fun it
is for DFS players. Yeah, I mean Atalanta they have
been great. So they play that really that really creative
and open three five two system with Goosen's and had
a Bauer as the you know, kind of wide midfielders
half midfielders, half defenders and you know, they they're their

(04:46):
midfielders certainly are not going to get a ton of
pub but you know those guys Freller and Martin d'aruin
specifically the fact that those guys just know their job.
They cycle the ball, they intercept the ball, you know,
kind of uh, just really good, kind of like they
actually played two guys in that Macaulay role of their
only job is to win the ball back and pass

(05:06):
it to the more creative players cycles up and then
they just said, you know they have the classic one small,
one tall with Alejandro Gomez and Duvonza Pazza or Joseph
Laich when he is back playing. You know, I think
that they are didn't didn't even start, didn't even start. Yeah,
they haven't even needed Joseph Lachich, who is is theoretically
one of their best players, but they they haven't even

(05:29):
needed him to generate these incredible results. And then actually
they in their uh in their game against Lots, so
they switched format again. One of my one of my
favorite formations in soccer is the three four three because
it's just all about cycling the ball, you know, really
holding that possession. No, like you think with those four

(05:50):
wide players you'd be crossing the ball a ton, but
they don't because they play, you know, they they play
a little bit closer, They play a little bit closer
to the ground. So I love that formation for them.
I thought that performance against Lots it was fantastic. Yeah,
and I mean that even has implications on the future
market because we were just talking about how poor Juventus
was playing prior to that next thing. You know, we

(06:11):
were saying be a little cautious because we know how
Juventus is. Yesterday when interplay their game and Lazio and
Atalanta played, was the perfect example of why Juventus always
wins the league. They take care of business against the
side like Ballogna Bologna it's two to nothing, but it's
always the other teams that need to step up. Right.
We saw Napoli go ahead when Coola Belie scored the

(06:34):
goal a couple of years ago, but Napoly faltered in
their last two games that should have been must win games.
Huve what do they do? They win their games, they
win the league again, They take care of business against Bologna.
Inter can never beat Saswallow. Whatever chance that they could
have had Milan screen are as of right now is
gonna miss three games. Antonio Conte isn't allowed on the
sideline for the next match. They draw on the last

(06:56):
minute and that one so they lose points there and
whatever pop sable momentum they could have had, and for
Lotsio to come down out of the break, they couldn't
have had a tougher matchup. But still they really didn't
play that well. Seria Malinkovits savages goal was unbelievable, but
the only other goal was an own goal. At that point,
they couldn't stop out the Lanta Francesco at charity gave

(07:16):
away the corner kick, which was just one of those
panic clearances that he sent that went for a quarter kick,
and then Malinowsky ends up scoring this rocket outside of
the box and they end up losing all three points.
Instead of just getting a potential one, they blew a
too nothing lead, Like you can't do that if you
want to end up winning the league against event this,
But event this does have a much difficult, a very

(07:38):
difficult schedule for the rest of the season. But you
think about and you're like, they're not playing well there
in first and they just want to nothing again. And
it's just like you want to think of scenarios and
reasons to bet on the future market and why you
want other teams to win and what value they have,
but they just keep giving you reasons not to do it,
because it's just the same old story any time and

(08:00):
time again. And that's why I always say, and a
lot of people do, you can't bet against the team
unless they actually show you why they can't do it anymore,
Like no one's betting on the Patriots anymore. To the
fact that, like you have to have them in every game,
they don't have Tom Brady and they and they've shown
there not what they used to be Hu and Byron
for example. There's still those teams. They're still going to

(08:21):
be winning these games in the league the way they do. Yeah,
and Juventus is very very Patriots, like very Yankees. Like
where they are. They are just so dominant inside their
league and it's almost like other teams once they reached
the heights of Uve, it seems like they it seems
like they just can't really handle the pressure. You know,

(08:41):
lots of you we we actually when we finally got
u soccer back, we were talking about, you know, maybe
taking them to win the league at plus two fifty
and it's just a way less interesting proposition now after,
you know, after this loss to Lots of it really
changes how they should be valued in the futures market.
They're now four points behind Uventus, which basically means Latsio

(09:02):
can't win the league now unless you've a loses a
game at some point, and you know, we just know
the way you've a players. We know how talented they
are relative to the rest of the league, and it's
not like they're running is uh insanely easy, And there
are plenty of games left to play in the Seria.
You know, if you were looking at their schedule, um,
the uv Atalanta game on uh the eleventh of July,

(09:26):
that's gonna be one that's you know, American audiences should
definitely be tuning into. And then you Ventus Latsio on
the twenty July. If things kind of if lots of
is able to hold serve, that game could maybe end
up being the league decider, which is you know, super
interesting and obviously going to be great TV. Yeah, definitely.

(09:46):
And I remember I was saying that, oh I would
be backing inter because if it between them or Lasio,
simply because Antonio Conte's team got a break, I thought
Latsio was one of the teams that would probably struggle
because they had that long off. They they're not built
to play every three or four days. The reason why
they struggled last year when they were going into Europa

(10:07):
League midweek, when they had those group stage matchups, they
kept faltering in the league and then they had injury issues.
They didn't have anyone to rotate in if one or
two guys went down. And for me, that's a major
issue when we're trying to finish eleven and twelve games
in what a six week span or or something like that,
six to seven weeks depend depending on the league. Like that,

(10:29):
they're not built for that. You know, who's built for that?
Who you've is, you You've is clearly built for that,
Like this is this couldn't play into their hands any better.
And then inter look, inter has all their injury situations,
but you cannot squander that. I mean, I don't know
if you saw Galiardini's miss, it was right in front
of the goal that he listened. I mean, I don't

(10:49):
know what the equivalent is in golf, maybe a two
ft put at that point, and you just blow the masters.
They basically blew whatever chance they had getting back into
the title race because he hit the post two feet
away and it was absolutely dreadful for them. And that's
something that's gonna be on repeat um for me right now. Though.
Look uh for about Hu, this is just you know,

(11:10):
take it game by game, rotate players in, just pick
up the points as as best you can. I don't
really see them faltering that much. I think the one
one game that I can definitely see them losing is
the Atalanta one because Atalanta is playing that much better
than them. But things can obviously changed in that time frame.
But for me, I just I just don't see it, Like,
who are they going to drop points against? Even when

(11:31):
they're playing bad, they're still going deep into penalties or
extra time. They're not losing these games either. At the
very least, they have that the best defense in the
league still and you're not gonna get past them, and
you're not going to score a lot on them, and
if you do, they'll catch you on the counter because
they have players that are capable of that. And it's
just it's just funny because we just try and talk

(11:52):
ourselves year after year into what's gonna happen, Who's gonna
be able to change the tide, and it just doesn't.
It's just the same story. And even if there's ten games,
even at the Lanta for instance, they're too far back,
like they're not going to catch up. It's like twelve points.
That's Huve also has to drop the points on top
of them. Yeah, it would have to be a historic
collapse from uve A at a certain point where you're

(12:15):
just like, oh, you know, they lost four games in
a row or something, and they're just too talented for that,
right they are. Just they just have too many good players.
You know, even with Christiano Ronaldo clearly seems like he's
not healthy, seems like he's not playing at his best.
It it just really doesn't even seem to matter, because
you know, if if Ron's not firing, then they have
Debala and you know if if Alexandro limps off Douglas Coast,

(12:37):
that can come off and be creative, you know, from
the left wing. And yeah, they just have they just
have too many good players, right that just they just
have too many players who are too good relative to
the rest of the league. Yeah, and they're getting more
talent coming in because really quick before we head out,
Pianage for Artur from Barcelona is going to be a
swap deal ten million and sixty million, which is the

(12:58):
valuation for Pianage going over to Barcelona. You know, thirty
years old. I really don't understand this transfer from Barcelona.
They're not getting any younger. Vidal, Rocketit, Bousquets and now
Panic all thirty and older, they're not getting younger, and
the younger guys they get aren't fitting into the system. Well.
But we're gonna be talking about more games coming up
here on the free Kick sports grid dot Com. Betting

(13:20):
insights and entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers
the most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds,
predictive betting models, expert picks, and more want the edge
than get on the grid sports grid dot Com. Hello everybody,

(13:43):
welcome back into the Free Kick here on the sports
Grid TV network. Thank you everybody for tuning in every
single week to the show. Davis and I have been
loving breaking down these games, these leagues, talking about them,
transfer wise, gambling wise, dfs, all of it is so
much fun and we're so glad we get to do
it all summer long and then pretty much just jump
right back in a few weeks later, um once everything

(14:05):
wraps up. But Davis, one of the first leagues to
wrap up is the first one that came back, and
that's Bundesliga. I thought it was a home run for them.
We could just talk about it for the league first, right.
Ratings were fantastic. All the star players uh, stayed and
played well, expect except for Holland, you know, I mean
he picked up muscular injuries. We were expecting some of that,

(14:25):
but to the amount of injuries that happened, not that
many really did to a lot of important players. That's
huge for Bundesiga. Yeah, Byron one again. But they were
playing great, Dorman was playing great. Leipzig had their moments
Glidebock and the lever Cluis and race has been awesome.
We still had the relegation battle to worry about as well. Um. Yeah,
so what did you think it was? This a great
advertisement for Bundesliga for a lot of American soccer fans

(14:49):
because I thought personally, I mean this is this was
great for them and it was a great advertisement. Great
defense or bad defense doesn't matter. I mean the product
on the field was excellent in my opinion. Yeah, you know,
I think from an American perspective, they got to see
some pretty good games. You know, got to see a
good run from Leipzig here, got to see obviously Bayern

(15:11):
Munich just completely steamroll their opponents. I think from a
television and the you know, marketing perspective, the one thing
that could have made this run in better would have
been for Dortmunt to win that game three weeks ago
against Bayern Munich. Had that happened, you know, obviously we
take three points away from Byron, give three points to Dortmunt,

(15:31):
and that had the potential to you know, really turn
the league on it's ear. We could have actually had
some drama here down at the break. Maybe we would
have had, you know, a title clinching game on the
final day of the season. And you know what is
you know, what's going to make better TV than a
title clinching game. You know, everyone remembers the Aguero moment
right ninety plus four when Man City won the league

(15:52):
on the you know, the last kick of the last
You can't really, you can't really dram up any more
dramatic than that. Yeah, Balatel on theseis, but I mean people,
you know, they really do they remember all of those
moments to uh, you know, to a really high degree,
and that would have been it would have been awesome
for a signature moment for this league to come through.
You know, I think we saw I think we just

(16:13):
saw a lot of really good I thought we just saw,
you know, a lot of really good soccer being played.
I think the style that they play in Germany is
very pleasing to watch on TV basically, you know, like
I think it is. I think it is pretty awesome,
and you know, I'm glad that the American audience got
to see that. I also would have wished for for

(16:34):
Earling broad Hallan to have not been injured. You know,
American audiences kind of would have loved him, I think,
the same way that they love his Laton where he
almost becomes bigger than the team, bigger than the game,
and he's kind of just this, you know, this otherworldly character.
So that that was a bummer, But overall, I would
say the Buddenhess League executives have to be happy. The
Fox executives that picked these league up, you know, they

(16:57):
have to be happy. I mean, how lucky for Fox
that they have been to own the broadcasting rights to
the first major league to come back. You know. The
bitter sweet thing about that for Foxes that Boondes League
is now moving to ESPN Plus. So that was that
pretty much for episode up after Saturday. Um yeah, I
think it was great. And the point you made about
Manchester City and and that game when they won that

(17:18):
title I think the growth of the Premier League right
after that was just absolutely crazy. I mean everyone was
talking about it, like everyone got into because everyone's just
used to you know, Manchester United, it's Arsenal, it's Chelsea
winning the league titles all the time. You don't really
get anyone else in there. And then you see the
underdog in Manchester City winning that's like there's never that's

(17:41):
like Game one sixty two, Evan Longoria'll walk off home
run gets the race into the playoffs. That's as close
as I can remember on a final day of a
game here, I know, the Timberwolves just got into the playoffs.
I mean that's a little different. It's not as crazy
as winning the title, but there really isn't anything to
compare to it, and that's what makes the sports so unique.
And all the starts to seeing Jaden Sancho take over

(18:02):
games and a half like that, Holland scoring the way
he did. Alfonso Davey is a familiar, you know name
for a lot of people because he played in the MLS,
winning Rookie of the Year over in Boondesliga. I mean,
really look propelling himself into the top ten conversation and
left back and help maybe even top five depending on
who you talked to. So yeah, absolutely a home run.

(18:25):
But it's not over yet. We still have some Champions
League spots to decide. We do have a relegation battle
and it's very important. So I want to start with
the relegation battle first, right, Bremen has an opportunity to
jump up, not out of relegation, but to get out
of an automatic relegation. So the third to last team
in Boondesliga goes to a relegation playoff and they go

(18:46):
against the third best team in the second Bundesliga. And
for me, I love that. That's so great. I think
it's a ton of fun. Yeah, I think it's such
a cool I think it's such a cool way for
I just think it's like the just something that's so
missing from American sports, like we will we would just
we won't get to know about the greatness of a

(19:07):
relegation battle of you know, hundreds of millions of dollars
swinging on the outcome of one game, like really imagined
like miners first Browns up against for like the first
pick in the NFL draft, and so you know, something
like that or whenever that was like two years ago, right,
um that that would have been amazing to see. Yeah,
they don't get a lot of these. But also an
important economic factor in this. There's a couple of players.

(19:29):
So when a team can get relegated, sometimes in certain
players contracts, they have their release clause. Right they stay
up in Bundesliga, they there claus is a lot higher
than it would be if they get relegated. So Rashi
from Werder Bremen, he's he's he's a big talent for them,
one of the bigger names that's going around on the
transfer market right now. A lot of the top clubs

(19:51):
around Europe are looking at him. Right if Bremen stays
up in Bundesliga, somehow they win their game, they win
the playoff, his release clauses thirty millions, they get relegated
sixteen million. It's a pretty drastic difference for a team
that is in a position that they're in, right because
they're not in a great position to not only stay
in the in the second division. They can't even you know,

(20:13):
get rid of some guys and then maybe try and
retool and revamp their roster because they're not going to
have almost half the amount of money that they would
have expected that if they stayed up, Because now you
have no leverage. Right you're in the second division. Players
are not gonna want to stay. You're not gonna be
able to keep them. So the important thing also with
a release clause is that the player really it really

(20:36):
comes down to the player if the club, if a
club triggers the release clause, then the club who has
the player has no choice but to accept it because
they triggered that. But it's all down to the player
to accept the transfer to the other team. So he
can deny, you know, a sixteen million dollar release clause
if he doesn't like any of the teams that try
to trigger it. But at the end of the day,

(20:58):
that's what you're kind of looking at. So there's just
so many different factors and that's what makes it so fascinating,
and you have to take it into account when you're
kind of looking at some of these games, because these
managers aren't going to be sitting or resting some of
these guys. They're gonna be playing everyone. They're going all out,
and these are teams that have nothing to play for
at the end of the day. Technically, yeah, no, I mean,

(21:20):
you you make a great point. I mean it's gonna
the financial battle for Verne Brayman in this specific situation
is absolutely massive because you know that fifteen million dollars. Now,
in the Premier League, you would maybe not think, oh,
you know, fifteen million dollars maybe not gonna be that
big of a deal. But in Germany, like, what what

(21:41):
do we think? You know, what do we think the
entire uh, you know, the entire payroll for um Augsburg
might be you know, like literally they could field a
team for fifteen million dollars. Like having a guy in
Germany who you can sell on for that much money
is a huge deal relative to some of the like
because we are just so skewed from our Western perspective

(22:03):
of thinking about how things work in the ep L.
We're like Brighton and Hove. Albion is like the seventeenth
richest team in the world and they're in the relegation
battle in in Europe. So you know, thirty million dollars,
fifty million dollars, that's that's absolutely massive for them. And
Bremen is gonna be you know, this game, this game
against Cologne is so big for them, you know, getting

(22:23):
getting a draw against Cologne might be enough. You know,
obviously they're probably gonna want a win, and you know,
there they might get kind of lucky because Cologne really
has absolutely nothing to play for. In terms of the table.
They are they are completely safe thirty six points. They
are ahead of Augsburg on goal differential. Um, they're actually
ahead of Minds on goal differential too, So if something

(22:45):
weird happens, they're like they are, they are completely safe.
So you know, I guess if you are a Burder
Braman person or if you're a fan, you would really
just be hoping that's a like Cologne runs. I mean,
you need so many different things to go your way
to write and one of the one of the best
parts about the Manchester City thing, to go back to it.
One of the most iconic videos is just Sir Alex

(23:08):
Ferguson and Wayne Rooney just standing on the field after
they just won their game and they hear the roar
um coming across and and they just find out that
Manchester City just one. Like they're sitting there waiting for
the results, kind of like other teams waiting to clinch
a playoff spot in the locker room, watching other teams
play it out to see what they get. I mean,
it's just so exciting and and one of the more

(23:31):
exciting things is the Champions League spot. Right launching Gladbach Leverkusen,
it's just been them two for that fourth spot that's
so highly coveted. And were talking again about the finances,
like how much more difficult it is to sell a
kai have heard's when you're fifth instead of fourth, Like
the value drops a decent amount because he's almost certainly

(23:53):
not going to want to play Europa League football. He
wants to play in the Champions League, and you just
you can't. You can't. Your your bargaining position is just
so much worse because you need the money so much more.
In a weird way, needing the money almost ensures that
you're going to get less because the buyers know that

(24:13):
you need that money. Whereas if you have a Champions
League spot, you know you can kind of you can't exactly,
and you can at least whatever money you get, say
it's like ninety million euros, you could just convince um
other players to join you say hey, we got a
good system going. We made it too. Champions League one
player isn't always the difference, come and join us here.
I'm just interested to see where he goes at that price.

(24:34):
So it's gonna be like it's I think it'll be
down to a buyern A Chelsea Real Madrid's name has
been tossed into the ring as well. Well. I don't
really think there's that many teams out there that could
really buy him like that. And if he's gonna turn
down one or two of them, then hey, they might
get lucky if they don't get into the Champions League.
So who who are you better? I think it's glad Block, right,

(24:56):
I don't I don't really see glod Bock dropping this
or dropping the Amoun to points and then lever cusin
taking advantage of their situation. Right, Like all these variables
in here, I think a lot of box really. You know,
they kind of righted the ship after they faltered and
stumbled a little bit. Now now I think they're good.
This is a favorable matchup for them, Hertha Berlin. They've
been playing well, they're inconsistent. I don't trust them to

(25:18):
knock off Claude Baka, who's won their last three or two. Yeah,
And I mean it's it's so it's so massive for them, right,
so lever Custon has pretty much a walkover game. So
I guess what lever Custon is hoping is Minds doesn't care.
Minds is safe. You know, this game is going to
be massive for lever Custon. They should be healthy, you know,

(25:39):
they've gotten a week off in between games now, so
they should be able to pretty much field their first
choice lineup, you know, more or less. So I guess yeah,
they're they're just hoping somehow that hurt of Berlin, you know,
really really packed the buyer. It's I think Hertha did
pretty solid coming back from the Star. They've invested so
much money they're basically trying to be the I don't know,

(26:03):
I guess you could call new money team in the
press in the Bundesliga, where they're just trying to spend
as much money as they can to get back in
and be relevant in these conversations. So they might be
a team to look at for next year, but as
of right now, I mean, I don't really see much
going down to change there. I think Lodbach is is
the team that's going to grab that fourth spot. Um,

(26:25):
it's definitely gonna be exciting. Bundesliga was so great for
the return. But when we get back here on the
free Kick, we're gonna be talking about another competition returning
in England State tuning sports grid dot Com betting insights
and entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers the
most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive

(26:46):
betting models, expert picks and more. Want the edge than
get on the grid sports grid dot Com. Hello everybody,
welcome back to the free Kick. Here on the sports
Scrid TV network, Martino Puccio and Davis Maddock alongside you.

(27:07):
The f A Cups back Davis, England's endless amount of
competitions continues. Um they have the Caraball Cup, they have
It's it's really like they're getting to the point where
it's a college football bowl games where they just keep
on adding all these like competitions and no one's really
asking for them except the TV networks to make some
more money. So we're kind of forced to watch this.

(27:29):
But the f A Cup FA Cup is one of
the classic ones. It's it's it's a respected trophy and
it's not just something to scoff at UM we talked
about a little bit a couple of weeks ago when
when the odds came out and we knew everything was
coming back. My opinion has changed a little drastically on
one team, and that's just Sheffield United. I mean, I

(27:50):
honestly can't believe what I'm seeing from them. I guess
the break did them no good. Their defensive organization is terrible.
They weren't able to play Dean Henderson against Manchester United
so that you could factor that. But of all the
teams we thought could have had a long shot with
futures and winning this competition, Sheffield United doesn't really fall
under that category anymore, do they? Yeah? No, I think

(28:12):
really the only two teams that uh I would be
wagering on to win this competition would be Manchester City.
Probably wouldn't bet that future, would probably rather just bet
them game by game. But you know, United looked pretty
solid in their return. I think that midfield pairing of
Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandez has a really really high ceiling.

(28:34):
You know, I really do think that those two guys
playing behind Marcus Rashford, Anthony Marshall and then you know
whoever you want to throw in their Juan Mada, Mason
Greenwood Andres Pereira. You know, I don't really think it matters. Um.
I think that those guys are such an awesome driving
force for that team that uff. You know what. I
could see them beating Man City this year for sure, yeah. Um.

(28:57):
And and they played extremely well against them during the
Premier League as well. And and they've beaten them, They've
given them the toughest of games. And you're right about
the creativity part. You kind of worry about sometimes if
marciaal can have that goal scoring output as a true
number nine, because that's not his natural position. He's much
better on the left side. But look, once March's Rashford

(29:18):
has struggled a little bit. But we also have to
remember not only was the three month break of thing,
he was injured right before that break and he was
having some potential back issues that could factor in here
to some of it lingering. So you don't know for
sure if he's going to play against Norwich, but it's
Norwich City. I'm not really that concerned about it. You get,

(29:40):
you know, some of the younger guys, some more Burn, Mason,
greening Wood potentially Daniel James will probably be in there
starting getting some minutes. But overall for United, yeah, I
love the way they look. I still think Chelsea has
really good value at plus eight hundred um. They do
have one of the tougher matchups against Lester, depending on
how you feel about Lester. Lester hasn't looked at sharp

(30:02):
either since returning. You know, things can change in competitions, right,
It could just you know, one team plays great one
day and then you know, Lester could still stumble for
the rest of the league. You know, Chelsea can you know,
play great in this competition all of a sudden they're
struggling again in the Premier League like they were. They
were very inconsistent this season, right considering all the young
names and players that they have, first season for Frank

(30:23):
Lampard at this top flight level. So it'll be interesting there.
Worst matchup on the board that I'm staying away from,
I'm not even looking at it. I'm still gross and
grossed out by looking at it right now. Sheffield Versa Arsenal.
Oh my god, like yeah, it's all yeah, I mean
these these two teams Um Arsenal no one, no one

(30:44):
really likes to watch you know, maybe people would have
liked to have watched Sheffield United before the break. You know,
they do play kind of and and we talked about
it right when the league's first came back. You know,
we kind of like that style that United plays. The
overlapping center backs is cool. You know, they really like
that old style, that old school English game and uh yeah,

(31:05):
I mean this is just a gross game. I I
I know we've been desperate for sports to get back,
but I don't even know with being desperate for sports
to get back, if that's enough to make me want
to watch Sheffield United against Arsenal. Well, summer just started.
We could go outside. We have a legitimate reason, like
summer is officially here, so I'll probably be outside during
that game. I mean, I do not I do not

(31:25):
want to bother watching that. If anything, Hey bet your unders,
I guess both teams to score. No, that's the solid
bet too. I think I think that you could look
at something like that. Hey, like, how about like an
under two and a half and both teams to score?
Is that something? No, No to both teams scoring, So
you could do same games. Actually, you know what, I

(31:47):
kind of like the the nil nill right, like that
score you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, like just just being
like these two teams they have no legs. United is
going to want to defend. Don't know if Arsenal can
really um, you know, break them down basically and if
actually you know what that's that's what I'm gonna do.

(32:08):
I'm gonna go ahead and bet that one right now,
get the get the exact the exact score, nail nail
for Sheffield United Arsenal. Um the the under so that
would basically be the under. Uh. The under on one
goal scored in this game is plus uh six and
twenty on the FanDuel Sports book. And uh, I honestly
don't hate it for this game. I mean it's not bad.

(32:32):
I get it. If if Sheffield goes with their healthy
and main line of Dean Henderson should be back for
this Arsenal short rest midweek game. I mean Sheffield playing
as well. Yeah, I mean yeah, I can't see it.
I'd maybe do under one and a half too, plus
two fifteen at the moment. That's not that bad either,
I mean under half a goal. Um, look, I mean

(32:55):
I mean that's that's a definite scenario, you know, zero zero,
you get plus sixty. There both teams to scores pretty
safe no plus one oh two. I mean it's it's
almost even. But at the end of the day, look,
I mean I take it, right, you feel pretty confident.
I don't feel confident in Sheffield scoring a lot, right,
Like they should have had the one goal against aston

(33:15):
Villa that got taken away by a bar that was atrocious.
But I mean, come on now, it's it's just really
it's really not something to get excited about, um any
other of these games. I mean, there's not much that
I really love here. I mean, look, what do you
take Man City money line? You do Man United money line?

(33:37):
You're only had a two team Harlay, that's minus one
fifties six. I mean, if you I actually like that,
like I think you could do like a like a
four or five unit bet on United over North because
I just I'm such a fan of the way United
is playing right now, and I think that these markets
are a little bit undervaluing, you know how good Bruno
Fernandez And I mean, look, I it's it's just such

(33:59):
this interesting thing with Paul Pogba where we've been taught
for so long, you know, the British media hates Paul
Pogba um and and I think he's great. I think
that Paul Pogba is so I think he's so fantastic.
And and Bruno has been way better than advertised, you know.
So I I think that until we're starting to see

(34:22):
United be favored by way more than this in these games,
you know, I, I think we should be pounding these
lines because they're inefficient lines. Yeah, I kind of agree.
That's why I was jumping over that that parlay yesterday
with Liverpool and Manchester United. And then I just taken
over in a game that I think is definitely going over,
like right there, it's such a viable and doable thing.

(34:43):
Like I I also had the parlay that I had
up was with the with the inter game. It was
like over two and a half in Crystal Palace in
Liverpool game total right is get you get four goals
in that one. And then Real Madrid money line there
minus seven hundred over over three goals for Lasio Atalanta
that was at a plus four fifty like that. I

(35:07):
was literally one stoppage time stoppage time goal away from
hitting that and I wasn't even sweating it. And and
there's so many games that you could find that have
these kind of values. And the important thing always is
line ups. It's lineups, lineups, line ups right, Like you
have to pay attention to who he's playing. We know
there are the five substitutions that could be worked in here.

(35:28):
But for some teams like a Norwich City, it doesn't
matter who are they bringing off on the bench with
these five substitutes. Yeah, well, I mean, what's the what
what does it matter? Right, Yeah, it doesn't matter at all,
Like the thing, Yeah, they can't bring someone off the
bench who's gonna change the game. Of course, it's it's

(35:50):
not It's not manchest United like you know, like they're
trying to slowly bring in Paul Poga, Like they're bringing
a Poga he's at his best day is arguably the
best midfielder in the world. Like that's the difference here
and and some in the teams, more so in England
than they did in even in Italy and Bundesliga. How
sometimes in La Liga, um they're using these substitutes Manchester United,

(36:14):
by the way, fun fact, I know we talked about
all the air first team ever an official at one
time it was just one of those late game NBA
substitutions where the whole team comes off the court. Hey,
how JV basketball. You'll let the team manager and the
bench players get in and get some burned right at
the end of the season when you have nothing to

(36:35):
play for. So, I mean, it was fascinating to see, um,
But look, yeah, you just have to wait for a
lot of these lineups because some of these teams to help.
What if Chelsea really doesn't want to win the f
A Cup, right, they just say, hey, Lester, go ahead,
will concede, We'll sit a lot of our guys on.
Then that that might be like a little bit of
a poison pill for them to be like, look, Lester,
we're competing against you guys in the league. Why don't you,

(36:57):
you know, busy yourself with trying to win a tro
fee that you're probably not gonna win. Anyways, We'll go
ahead and play our kids in this game. You know,
we'll throw Callum Hudson a doy and uh and uh
what's the Yeah, what's the nineteen year old with the dreads? No, No,
the the Welsh kid. I can't remember his name right now.

(37:17):
It's embarrassing. Um, But yeah, I mean they could just
they could just throw all their kids out there, you know,
pretty much no problem. Uh you know, let let William rest,
let Conte rest. Let's let's uh their their fullbacks rest. Yeah. Yeah, Look,
I mean at the end of the day, it's just
there's so many different roads that these teams can go down,

(37:39):
and with this condemned schedule, you have to take into
account everything that they're playing for. Like you just have
to sit there at the end of the day, just
go If you're a fan of a team, right, you're
a Chelsea fan, what do you want Chelsea to do?
What is best for Chelsea in this situation moving forward
for the future. Is it in their best interest to
try and win the f A Cup. Is it to

(38:00):
officially lock up that fourth spot for Champions League? Hell
even catch Lester in third place if you can, and
then get a better pot for the Champions League draw
like right there, Yes, a trophy for the f A
Cup is nice, but you still have a couple of
rounds to play in that on top of playing in
the league. I'd rather get the third spot for Champions
League or the fourth spot locked up for next year

(38:22):
because for me, I know, without a shadow of a
doubt that's in the best interest of my club's future.
And that's the best way to kind of look at
this stuff. And I know it takes some deep thinking,
but at the end of the day, if you want
to win money, you gotta think a little bit, right, Yeah,
for sure. I mean it sounds so cynical to be like, oh, well,
who's gonna make the most money, because you know that

(38:42):
no one like we don't like to think about sports
that way. But yeah, I mean your team, Uh, the
ideally you want them to have the most money so
that they can get the best players in the future.
And the way to do that is to get Champions
League football and nothing else is gonna work. Yeah, and
and and look this, this this race is extremely tight.
I think you can kind of you know, Manchester United

(39:04):
has this cushion now. I think they're feeling a lot
more comfortable week and week out of what their situation
is because even Spurs winning their game, I don't know,
if you caught that one, they weren't convincing. Like I
didn't see anything from Spurs like Harry Kane just scoring
that goal at the end where he had that breakaway
and you're kind of looking at it like he's on
the ground, he's extremely tired, and it's like is he

(39:26):
tired or is he just relieved that he finally scored
because there's so much pressure on him because Jose Marino's answering.
You know, the writers and journalists saying like, I've had
all these top strikers that are able to score these
goals because they're questioning whether or not Harry Gane, one
of the best strikers in the world for the past
few years, can score goals for one of the best
managers of all time. I mean, that's the situation that

(39:47):
Spurs have. But when we come back, Davis, we're gonna
be talking about some of the top matchups this weekend
and what bets we'd like to play. Sports grid dot
Com betting insides and entertainment at your fingertips as our
team covers the most important topics in sports, waging, real
time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks, and more want
the edge than get on the grid sports grid dot Com. Oh,

(40:13):
my final segment of the day, everybody, I know it's
a lot of people's most favorite segment of the day
is finally when we get into some of the bets,
the best matchups, we always like to go with the
bigger matchups right throughout Europe, the big sexy names, the
games that everyone's gonna be watching and betting on too
at the same time. Right, So we'll go over to Italy.
I know it's a little bias, whatever, I don't really

(40:34):
care Melon versus Roma. It's a headliner name. There are
two of the more popular teams in that league. There's
still Europa League spots to be played for. You know,
Roman needs to hold down the Florida until Nicolas Angiolo
comes back, where there is a potential that he does
come back before all these twelve games wrapped up. They
both won their recent games. Milan one four to one
against lech Lecha is absolutely dreadful in this matchup. Ibrahimovich

(40:56):
is still going to be out for this for Milan,
so he won't be in this. So they're gonna be
rolling with this four two three one formation that they've had.
Um howkan Chello Glue played great in that match. He
had you could say he had like three assist in
it because the one shot that he took spilled and
Jack Bonaventura just tapped it in, So I mean it's
an indirect hockey assist. We'll call it whatever you know,

(41:19):
it counts. But he played great there. They were creating shots.
Raphael A I'll coming off the bench scoring hey. Look.
And for Roma too, you know, came back after being
down one nothing against sam Dora and in Jeco scoring
two goals. A reliable name if you like DFS plays.
So for me, I think this one can definitely go
either way. They faced off earlier in the season, Roma
absolutely outplayed him. It wasn't even close to a matchup,

(41:41):
but that was a completely different Milan team. Slatzan wasn't
in there, Rabbige wasn't playing scoring seven goals in seven
games like he has recently for them. Margot John Paulo
was a coach at the time he was. There was
never a manager that got fired faster for the club,
but in their history, and they've been around since eight
so that's all you could worrying about that if you
just need to know how dreadful they were. As for Roma,

(42:04):
they were a little bit in the free fall. I thought.
I thought the break for them was something that was
really important so they could regroup and gather themselves because
Manyolo tearing his A c L they would have lost
him for the whole season. Now they could just get
him back, and he is absolutely the best young talent
in Italy as an Italian, so it would be huge
for them to get him back because they're still sitting
in fifth place as of now. Um. I was looking

(42:25):
at some of the in game parlays that you could make, Davis,
and it was very interesting. So Milan as you could
see up on the board right now, plus one sixty
money line right the draws are too forty romas plus
one sixty five. Now, if you want to do the
same game parlay bet, you could take Roma money line
and the over two and a half at plus two
eighty three. But if you look over and you take
me line with the money line in over two and

(42:47):
a half, it's plus three oh four. I'm fascinated by this.
I'm not a great mathematician by any means. It doesn't
make much sense to me, But what makes sense it
is placed in the bet potentially a Milan. Yeah, I
mean this is this is just a greater acrol point
about betting on things in general, which is you really
should look at all the avenues that your sports book offers.

(43:08):
And FanDuel sports book is really unique in this way
because you know, right now FanDuel is really trying to
acquire customers. They want, you know, legal betting residents in
uh in New Jersey, in Pennsylvania, you know, in some
of these other opening markets, there are other places. You know,
pretty much, it feels like every week we have some
new state proposing legislation. And as a result of that,

(43:30):
you know, they run they run all these promotions to
try and get people to be betting at their sports book.
And and some of those are you know, gonna be
very favorable for the better and you should you should
really be paying you should really be paying attention to
those because those are that's get free ev given away
just for being a customer a FanDuel. Yeah, exactly. And

(43:51):
it's just just always playing around. If you see a
game you like, you know, just for example, in this,
I don't feel so strongly again to either side winning
maybe lean Roma just because of the injury question marks
with Milan in this they're more experienced team um, and
they're just better at this point, right um, both teams
to score? Is that no at plus one. I'm not

(44:15):
it's pretty decent value, but I'm actually not that confident
in Roman is really not a strong defensive side. Um,
you know, Milan do have options. They've they've done well.
They outplayed Hua when they played them. They beat up
on that a team that they should beat up on,
So they're doing what they have to do. So I
do think there's a scenario in which they do score here,
So I would like to take both to score at

(44:35):
minus one eight. I know, whatever you want to call
it square bet or not, I don't really believe in
that stuff, like make fun of me if you if
you're able to win money, Davis like I don't understand
and saying like I don't want to place this spet
because it's a square bet. To me, that logic never
made sense. What made sense to me is just if
you know you have a good chance of making money,
why not take advantage of it. Yeah, I have I

(44:59):
have another where one that I like to Brescia minus
one five over Genua. So Brescia for me is a
super interesting team. They just held their own with Fiorentina.
Actually uh in in this game last week they there
was there was a red card in that game that
that changed things for them a little bit. But they

(45:21):
have a young man by the name of Sandro Toanale
who is like the best box to box midfielder that
no one knows of right now. You know, he will
probably be playing he's going He's going to Milan. That's
where he's headed. There we go. Yeah, he'll play for
Inter for a season or two and then you know

(45:41):
United will snap him up, or City will buy him,
or Chelsea will buy him, and he'll go there and
he will win titles. He will you know, be playing
in Champions League finals. I mean, this dude is incredible.
He's kind of like if pure Low was like also
really too fast and yeah, yeah go too So actually
maybe is the better get so with um with maybe

(46:02):
like a little bit long ball passing ability. Yeah, it's
he's that's exactly where they go. But they go with
Pierlo all the time because of his hair. So that's
that's kind of where it gets a little lazy with
some people. Um, but yeah, he's more of like a
Ctuzo pier Low hybrid type. I mean, the talents off
the charts. He's he's been there. Um, it was really
down to Huve and interve for the race to sign him.

(46:24):
And look, they're getting relegated again. This is another thing.
If they stayed up, they could have cashed out around
sixty million euros. Now they're looking at forty because they
know absolutely that they're getting relegated at this point, even
with all the games that are left to play. Bealatelli
was a flop for them. Uh don't a ruma. Who
is their striker up top? You know, he couldn't really

(46:44):
adjust to the league that well. So it really wasn't
that much of a success for them in their stay.
But look they took they played well against Fiorentina, and
that's something you'd like to see. Santratonani still has a
lot to play for it's very important for his development. Hell,
there's still a lot of games left. Although I'm not
that confident brescias staying up, I do think there's a

(47:05):
scenario on that and general look, generally is what they
are man like. They have stretches where they where they
get a lot of points and you think they could
finish in the top hat at the table, but the
next thing you know, they're in the bottom half of
the table and They're not getting relegated. They're just they're
just they're They're just one of those names. You know,
when you you go on sport col you're filling out
all thirty MLB teams, you just forget about the Padres.

(47:25):
That's who they are. General is just the Padres at
this point minus Manny Machado. So um yeah. So on
the docket, look Atalanta and this is something that we
were talking about just before we were recording with this
at Atalanta is just a blind hit the over, like
you just have to seven goals in the past two games.
They could have had a lot more against US Swallow

(47:46):
over that weekend match that they had. They didn't look
like they've skipped a beat at all. They're a genuine
threat to win the Champions League in my opinion, especially
with the one game all format for them, same game parlays. Again,
they might be minus to twenty on the money line, Davis,
but over two and a half is that minus one
fifty two, You combine those two you get plus one twelve.
That's really not that bad value whatsoever. And I don't

(48:09):
really think that's something you have to be shaking in
your boots about not hitting yeah, for sure, No, I
I completely agree. I like, I like I like that
angle on that game for for sure. Um, any other
games that you're kind of looking forward to on the
weekend or the weekday? Here are you? Are you leaning
towards some totals now? Because we know that these these

(48:30):
leads that have returned, they've been back for three or
four games, depending on the league. Have you gotten kind
of a vibe about how you want to bet some
of them? Is there a certain direction that you go
towards in England? Because England there's been a ton of
overs under its Excuse me, if you watch some of
the games, um from the other day, UM, when Liverpool
was playing against Crystal Palace, that was really the only

(48:52):
game besides the Manchester United one where there was goals
being scored. The other games are just, I mean, very dull,
kind of like the Arsenal game is actually just a
bunch of Arsenal games. No one's scoring, it's not really
pretty to watch. Is that kind of where you've been
going in terms of unders or was there another philosophy
you kind of been going with? You know, I think
because I don't like betting over unders for football, for

(49:14):
American football. I I prefer money lines and spreads. That's
just kind of the angle that I take to these games.
And you know, I think there is one really interesting one.
We just talked about it in segment too, but Berna
Brayman minus one sixty against Cologne that's on the Fandel
Sports book. That is that's the the Davis Mattock uh
five star lock of the Week. I I am definitely

(49:37):
betting that one Cologne at Cologne absolutely nothing to play
for Bremen literally everything to play for. You know, they
can't they can't lose this game. They can't draw this game.
You know. It really does all come down to are
they able to you know, are they able to win
this game? So I think that's a great scenario where
our incentives are going to be aligned with the team

(49:57):
that we are betting on. So I like that one
a lot. All right, Well, the best part about it
is that you've got your five star better the Week.
I think we just got a role with that. From
now on, at every fourth block, fourth segment of every
Free Kick show, we'll have a five star Davis Manic
bet and he'll let you know. And this week is
worder Braman minus one sixty on the money line, because
I love money lines to I do it all the time.

(50:18):
I was addicted at one point to NBA money line parlays,
like they were just so much fun and you can
get really good. And I think the NBA for me
money Line is probably one of the easier leagues to
uh to bet on um. This one's gonna be taking
place in a few days, Davis, But this has title implications,
It has Champions League grace implications. Barcelona let it go

(50:42):
Barcelona kind of playing length the traditional athletic go on
this not scoring a lot, winning by a goal or so,
taken advantage of whatever opportunities they have and Let it
Go has played fantastic since they returns. You'l Felix has
looked good during stretches. Their defensive alignment has been great,
and it really seems like all the players that they
blood over the summer have kind of situated themselves in

(51:04):
and they've done well. And by the way, Antoine Griesman
continued flop, I mean, his season has just been disastrous.
I kind of cringe and shutter at the fact whenever
I see him in the lineup. Now on the left side.
I mean, it just doesn't work. It's like it's like,
literally they would be their better playing Arthur, who they
just sold by the way they play Arthur out in

(51:26):
that old um and dress in the Esta position, you know,
kind of like half midfielder, half winger. You know, his
his whole job is just to get the ball to
messy basically, you know, to kind of shuttle the ball
from the midfield in the messy or two Suarez and
you know, Greenesman never figured out how to play that
position in kind of that Barcelona way, and because he

(51:47):
wants to create, right you know, Greenesman wants to create.
Greenesman wants to score goals and you know, of course,
you know that's what he did at Madrid for so long.
But I just I can't. I do not see this
arrangement working out long term for them at all. Yeah,
I again, And you know what it's like, they're they're
they're tied with these guys Dembella. It's gonna be hard

(52:07):
to dump Coutino when he returns. Hard to dump. You're
gonna have Griesman you gotta get rid of. I mean,
Suarez is aging. They bring in Pianage too, it's just
the direction of Barcelona. Everyone. There's a there's a good
amount of people in the soccer space, if football space,
whatever you wanna call it, that think Barcelona is going
to collapse once Messi is gone. And I don't think

(52:29):
that's so far fetched because a lot of the moves
that they've been making, the way they're playing on the field,
the talent that they have, and their whole philosophy about
it just really isn't working. I think I might take
Athletical on this matchup. I don't really feel confident in Barcelona.
I I'm kind of leading Atletico. I'm waiting for the
line up because there's still a couple of days away.
We don't know what he'll happen. But for me, I

(52:50):
think a Letical has fantastic value here real quick, what
do you think? Yeah? No, I think I think we
go Athletico in this game. It's just not the same
Barcelona we're used to. All Right, that'll be you my
five star better the week. We'll go to that let
it go money line. Davis Mannock Werder Bremen, see you
guys next week. Thanks so much for what sports grid

(53:13):
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