The first Western Conference semi-final of the MLS Cup Play-offs takes place in the early hours of Wednesday morning when the defending champions will look to move a step closer to a successful title defence as the Seattle Sounders host FC Dallas.
Both these teams had very good wins in the first round of the postseason last week and will be acutely aware that the winner moves through to the Conference final next week against either Sporting Kansas City or Minnesota United.
Where to watch
There is a choice of channel to watch this match on in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Sky subscribers can watch it on the Sky Sports Football channels but those without Sky can watch it on Free Sports. The programme begins at 2.50am with the match kicking off soon after. The match is also available at the bookmakers streaming services.
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Seattle Sounders
The defending champions have cruised through to another Conference semi-final. Although they stumbled at the finish line in the regular season which denied them the number one seed in the West, they made light work of Los Angeles FC which will have set them up nicely for this encounter. We know from having seen them in previous seasons that they are a team who play their best football in the postseason and there was evidence of that last week.
There is a case to be made that the Seattle Sounders have the best front three in the competition and they all showed their class in the win over Los Angeles in the last round. There is a slight concern over their defence but Stefan Frei is a big time goalkeeper and it takes something special to beat him at this time of year. When you throw in home advantage as well it is not hard to see why the Sounders are strong favourites here.
FC Dallas
To be fair to FC Dallas though they have been to one of the harder places in MLS to go and lived to tell the tale. They went to the Portland Timbers and while they needed penalties to come out on top, they got the job done when many, myself included, didn’t think that they had it in them to go on the road and see off the Timbers. Dallas are being written off again here but they are probably playing with the house money so to speak.
It will be interesting to see how Dallas set up in this match. It was clear to see that it took Portland taking the lead to get the best out of Dallas so it will be interesting to see if they look to contain the Sounders here or whether they might fight fire with fire and come out with some more attacking players from the start. If we’ve seen anything in these play-offs so far it is that the team that goes after the game are prospering.
Betting
I respect FC Dallas a little bit more after they got the better of the Portland Timbers but not to the extent that I think they will beat the Seattle Sounders here. In fact I think the Sounders are very good things in this match and I’d be very surprised if they are not occupying a position in the MLS Cup final when it comes around later in the month. I’m even more confident about backing them at home where they play so well at CenturyLink Field.
I’m actually a little surprised that you can get Seattle on a 0.75 Asian line. That can only be because this is the play-offs and the perception is the matches will be tighter as a result. We’ve not seen that in these play-offs though with the exception of the Nashville matches and that is more because of the way they set up to play rather than the occasion. There were no signs in their match against LAFC that Seattle were going to play the long game or be edgy. I expect them to take the game to Dallas here and won out pretty comfortable winners.
Tips
HALF WON – Back Seattle Sounders (-0.75AH) to beat FC Dallas for a 3/10 stake at 1.87 with BetVictor
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