We have reached the stage of the MLS 2023 season where the two weekends of rivalry matches take place and some of those are in a strong looking card in the league on Saturday evening, where 13 fixtures take place.
As I’m sure you are beginning to realise by now, all of these matches are available to be streamed on the MLS Season Pass via Apple TV with a few matches on offer for free for those who don’t subscribe. The bookmakers carry all of the matches too.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (00.30 unless stated)
Chicago Fire FC v St. Louis City SC (18.00)
Atlanta United v Charlotte FC
CF Montréal v Toronto FC
Columbus Crew v Orlando City SC
D.C. United v Nashville SC
Inter Miami CF v New England Revolution
New York Red Bulls v New York City FC
Austin FC v FC Dallas (01.30)
Houston Dynamo FC v Seattle Sounders FC (01.30)
Sporting Kansas City v Minnesota United FC (01.30)
Colorado Rapids v Philadelphia Union (02.30)
Real Salt Lake v Los Angeles Football Club (02.30)
Portland Timbers v Vancouver Whitecaps FC (03.30)
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Big Matches
In terms of rivalry games on Saturday the biggest one is the first Hudson River derby of the MLS 2023 season as struggling New York Red Bulls will play their first MLS match since parting company with Gerhard Struber when they host New York City FC who head to Red Bull Arena looking for a first road win of the season. Atlanta United will look to continue their positive start to the season when they host new rivals Charlotte FC while over in the Western Conference we have two of the three Texas teams battling it out when Austin FC meet FC Dallas. The latest Cascadia Cup clash sees the Portland Timbers hosting the Vancouver Whitecaps while back in the Eastern Conference we have the Canadian Classique between CF Montreal and Toronto FC.
Best of the Rest
Saturday is also a day where the two Conference leaders are in action. FC Cincinnati are not featuring on Saturday so the New England Revolution have the chance to pull clear in the East and in the race for the Supporters’ Shield when they make the trip to Inter Miami while the Western Conference leaders Seattle Sounders will look to put their surprise loss to Sporting Kansas City last week behind them when they take on Houston Dynamo away from home. The champions Los Angeles FC saw their unbeaten record go pop last week and they’ll be aiming to get back on the winning run when they travel to Real Salt Lake while all eyes will be on Columbus Crew after successive defeats heading into their bye week. They return at home to an up and down Orlando City SC side.
Betting
I’ll go with one bet over the course of the matches on Saturday with that coming in the big clash in Canada where CF Montreal might merit being bigger favourites to see off Toronto FC than they actually are. I say that for a couple of reasons, not least that these two sides met in the Canadian Championship in midweek when Montreal went to Toronto and won. Both teams put out strong sides in that match so there will be no surprises here.
The other reason why I fancy Montreal in this one, aside from the fact that it is them who are at home in this contest, is because Toronto FC are carrying a lot of injuries at the minute and that loss in midweek has seen a lot of negative noises come out of Toronto. Their fans threw things on the pitch at their players at the end of that midweek defeat and you sense things are not in a good place at BMO Field at the minute. That win in midweek was a fifth successive victory in all competitions for CF Montreal so after a very slow start to the season they are now really building up a head of steam under Hernan Losada and should be bigger favourites for this one than they are.
Tips
Back CF Montreal (-0.25AH) to beat Toronto FC for a 3/10 stake at 1.98 with Bet365
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