Cunningham wins Player of the Week again

Soccer Betting Lines

10/13/2009 - Frisco, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - FC Dallas forward Jeff Cunningham was voted MLS Player of the week for Week 30 of the regular season, it was announced Monday.

Cunningham assisted on David Ferreira's goal and scored the match-winner, his league-leading 17th of the season in a 2-1 win over the San Jose Earthquakes.

FC Dallas' third consecutive win kept it alive in the race for the playoffs.

Cunningham's goal was in the 81st minute off an assist from Dax McCarty. After San Jose tied the score in the 73rd, Dallas again needed Cunningham's heroics to grab a crucial win.

Cunningham leads the league with seven game-winning goals this season, and is the all-time MLS leader with 36 in his career.

The win moved Dallas to 10-12-6 with 36 points, including 6-3-1 in its last 10 matches. Cunningham has scored 16 goals in the last 13 games.

The Player of the Week award is Cunningham's fourth of the season and the 13th of his 12-year career.

Cunningham leads the Golden Boot race by one goal over Colorado Rapids forward Conor Casey, who scored twice for the United States in a 3-2 win over Honduras on Saturday as it clinched its sixth straight berth in the World Cup.

Cunningham and Casey meet on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. (ET) in Texas. The Rapids sit one place, and four points, ahead of FC Dallas in the Western Conference.

FC Dallas would remain alive in the race for the MLS Cup Playoffs with a win, but a loss or tie could end its season.

2009 MLS Player of the Week winners:

Week 1: Fredy Montero (Seattle Sounders FC)

Week 2: Kasey Keller (Seattle Sounders FC)

Week 3: Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids)

Week 4: Donovan Ricketts (Los Angeles Galaxy)

Week 5: Josh Wolff (Kansas City Wizards)

Week 6: Javier Morales (Real Salt Lake)

Week 7: Jaime Moreno (D.C. United)

Week 8: Macoumba Kandji (New York Red Bulls)

Week 9: Josh Wolff (Kansas City Wizards)

Week 10: Amado Guevara (Toronto FC)

Week 11: Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids)

Week 12: Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution)

Week 13: Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus Crew)

Week 14: Omar Cummings (Colorado Rapids)

Week 15: Nate Jaqua (Seattle Sounders FC)

Week 16: Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas)

Week 17: Chad Barrett (Toronto FC)

Week 18: Cuauhtemoc Blanco (Chicago Fire)

Week 19: Yura Movsisyan (Real Salt Lake)

Week 20: Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas)

Week 21: Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids)

Week 22: Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew)

Week 23: Kheli Dube (New England Revolution)

Week 24: Pablo Campos (Real Salt Lake)

Week 25: Josh Wolff (Kansas City Wizards)

Week 26: Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas)

Week 27: Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo)

Week 28: Shalrie Joseph (New England Revolution)

Week 29: Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

Week 30: Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas)

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

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