The opening night of the MLS 2023 season takes place on Saturday when a bunch of matches take place as teams begin another season in the competition out in America, where football is ready to take off after a creditable World Cup showing.
This is the start of a huge new TV deal on Apple TV with MLS so all of the matches will be shown in full on that streaming service. Those who don’t subscribe to that facility can watch each of the matches with the bookmakers.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (UK kick off in brackets – 00.30 unless stated)
Nashville SC v New York City FC (21.30)
Atlanta United v San Jose Earthquakes
Charlotte FC v New England Revolution
D.C. United v Toronto FC
FC Cincinnati v Houston Dynamo FC
Inter Miami CF v CF Montréal
Orlando City SC v New York Red Bulls
Philadelphia Union v Columbus Crew
Austin FC v St. Louis City SC (01.30)
FC Dallas v Minnesota United FC (01.30)
Vancouver Whitecaps FC v Real Salt Lake (03.30)
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Big Matches
We have lost a couple of the matches originally scheduled for Saturday evening because of the weather so the season will kick off in Tennessee as Nashville SC go up against the former MLS Cup champions New York City FC. The pick of the matches on the opening night of the season comes from Subaru Park where Philadelphia Union go up against Columbus Crew. That is the beaten finalists of last year against the 2020 champions. St Louis City SC are the new boys in the league this season. Their opening match is a daunting looking one against the Western Conference finalists of a year ago in Austin FC.
Best of the Rest
Two sides who will be eager to perform much better than they did last season meet at Audi Field when DC United host a Toronto FC side who could be springers in the Eastern Conference. Atlanta United begin life without Josef Martinez when they host the San Jose Earthquakes. The Venezuela international has moved to Inter Miami and they start their season at home to CF Montreal who have seen a huge number of key players leave in the off season. FC Cincinnati and New York Red Bulls both made the playoffs last season and they host Houston Dynamo and travel to Orlando City respectively.
Betting
New teams tend to struggle in MLS and I’m not sure there are many tougher games for St Louis City to have in their opening match in the league than a trip to Austin FC, who are usually very good at home and who could be in for a special season after managing to keep their squad together and add to it in the form of Gyasi Zardes, who as I mentioned in my outright preview is the missing piece in the Verde jigsaw.
That was evidenced in pre-season when Austin were scoring for fun and while you could argue they weren’t as tight at the back as they would have wanted, I suspect when the serious stuff begins things will work out better for them. They might not need to be great at the back here though because St Louis look like they might set up to contain rather than attack which isn’t a tactical plan I see working. We might see a competitive St Louis when they have had time to come to terms with the league but I expect their MLS life to begin with a relatively comfortable defeat here.
Tips
Back Austin FC (-1AH) to beat St Louis City SC for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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