There is one match left in the MLS 2023 regular season before we get to Decision Day and it comes along on Wednesday night when two Eastern Conference rivals collide in Florida as Inter Miami go up against Charlotte FC.
The season is done and dusted for Inter Miami so they will be looking to play the role of party pooper. Charlotte will move into the playoff zone with a win here and will have their destiny in their own hands on Saturday.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full with proper coverage on the Apple TV MLS Season Pass with the build-up beginning at 12.45am ahead of a weird 1.09am kick off time. The match will also be shown with the bookmakers who offer live streaming.
Inter Miami
This has been a very weird season for Inter Miami. The first half of it had them looking like they would be the worst team in MLS but then came the arrival of the superstar Lionel Messi and immediately they turned into one of the best teams in the competition, a point they proved when they strolled to victory in the Leagues Cup and made their way to the US Open Cup final but defeat in that match has seen a real drop off in form.
That has coincided with a couple of things. The first being a large run of games in an incredibly short space of time catching up with them and the second was an injury to Messi which probably came about because of the number of matches he was asked to play. The result has been a run of just one win in their last six matches and even that came against rock bottom Toronto FC, when ironically Messi did play a few minutes.
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Charlotte FC
Charlotte FC were unable to get anything going either side of the break for the Leagues Cup but they were picking up enough draws to stay relevant in the Eastern Conference. That caught up with them eventually and a couple of weeks ago they ended up in the situation where they needed to win their last four regular season matches in order to guarantee being involved in the playoffs. To their credit they have found the first two wins they need and go in search of a third here.
Were they to get that win they would move up to eighth spot ahead of a reverse meeting with Miami on Saturday. Charlotte have avoided defeat in half of their away matches this season which will give them positive thoughts ahead of this one and the fact that they know that they have to win will help them with their mindset. There can be no playing for the draw or getting caught up with sticking and twisting. It is win or most likely need a lot of results to go their way on Saturday.
Betting
I’m a little surprised that we can get Charlotte FC on a draw no bet line here. Usually at this stage of the season we get odds which reflect which team has something to play for and which one doesn’t but that isn’t really the case here. Whether that is because Lionel Messi is in Inter Miami I’m not sure but he played for Argentina on Tuesday night so there is no chance of him playing in a dead rubber for the Florida side here.
Charlotte avoided mass numbers being called up on international duty and even one of those, Karol Swiderski, played on Sunday and might well be back in time for this match given the huge nature of it. Inter Miami are without nine stars from their squad due to internationals with Lionel Messi one of them but form players such as Robert Taylor, Ben Cremaschi and Josef Martinez are also available so this will be a skeleton Miami side, similar to the one which stunk the competition out earlier in the season. Since he arrived, Miami have only won one match which Messi hasn’t appeared in and I don’t expect that number to be doubled here. Charlotte draw no bet is the way forward for me in this one.
Tips
Back Charlotte FC (0AH) to beat Inter Miami for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
